Do You Believe?
by Coz
Summary: [Complete] SG1 are captured but when they easily escape, is everything as it seems? Especially when they start exhibiting strange behaviours! Finally finished, with chapters 19 and 20.
1. Chapter 1

**In discussions with my wonderful beta Naliza about Against the Wall an idea was thrown into the mix by her that really interested me.  But my muse, being problematic as always, decided to take that story somewhere else.  The idea, however, stuck with me and so I had to start writing this!**

**So I'm now writing two stories and trying to do all my work for uni, the words big and britches spring to mind, but it's all my own fault, or my muses at the very least!!**

***~*~***

Almost as soon as SG-1 came through the Stargate they realised that it had been a mistake to visit that specific planet, designated P2X-739.  Colonel Jack O'Neill turned to make sure the rest of the team had arrived when a bolt of purple energy flew over his right shoulder.

"What the -" Jack practically shouted as he crouched down, ignoring the loud protest of his bad knee.

He looked around at the rest of his team; they had all adopted similar postures.  He heard the familiar sound of a zat gun opening as Dr Daniel Jackson raised the Goa'uld weapon.  Major Samantha Carter had her P-90 raised and was expertly searching the distance for any sign of whoever had fired the shot.  Teal'c had his staff weapon open and ready.  Another blast flew past them and impacted on a stone adjacent to the gate, leaving a small scorch mark on the grey stone.

"Where is that coming from?" Jack asked, almost meaning it as a hypothetical question.

"I do not see anyone O'Neill," Teal'c replied.

"Thanks," Jack said dryly.

"Well, whoever they are, they don't want us around.  Daniel dial the gate, we'll lay down cover fire," Jack ordered.  The rest of the team nodded their agreement.

Teal'c began to fire in the general direction that the shots had come from.  As he fired he was forced to move away from their position, which although sheltered offered little tactical advantage.  More energy bolts came in their direction as Jack and Sam began to fire in a bid to give Daniel the change to open a wormhole to Earth in safety.

Daniel ran as fast as he could to the DHD, trusting the others to stop him from getting shot.  He had the first four chevrons engaged before he heard a grunt of pain, turning quickly he saw Jack fall to the floor.

"Dial Daniel," Sam shouted urgently before she too was hit by a blast.  She remained standing but a look of shock and pain appeared on her face.  She quickly ejected the empty magazine from her weapon, in one smooth movement she pulled out a fresh magazine, reloaded the weapon and began to fire.

Daniel turned back to the DHD and finished the dialling sequence.  As soon as the wormhole engaged he pushed up his sleeve and entered the correct code into his GDO, which would indicate to the SGC that they were under fire.

He turned back to see both Sam and Teal'c hit.  Sam sunk to her knees as she was hit but continued to fire, not that it seemed to be helping.  The shots were coming more and more frequently now.  Daniel could see that Sam was doing her best to stay conscious but she was fighting a losing battle, even Teal'c was showing the effects of whatever was being thrown at them.

Daniel rushed back to help Sam get to the gate, trusting that Teal'c would be able to carry Jack.  He looked down as he felt a burning pain spread through his body.  The pain radiated from his chest where a scorch mark had appeared on the green material of his jacket.

He suddenly realised that the ground was rushing up to meet him and then his face impacted hard against the rocky ground.

Teal'c looked round, Daniel and O'Neill were both unconscious.  He noticed that Sam was rapidly losing consciousness and after a few seconds she too fell to the floor.  He continued to fire before he was hit an additional number of times and joined the rest of his team in utter nothingness.

Seeing that all of the group were unconscious their attackers came out of their hiding places and approached the fallen team.  They were most interested in Sam and Teal'c, who had been shot multiple times before they fell, something they had never seen before.  The weapons were new inventions, however and so had not been tested on any species than their own, this was the first time they had been used in anything resembling a combat situation.

As they approached Teal'c they saw the edges of the gold tattoo on his forehead.  Two of them carefully kicked him until he lay on his back and the entire gold serpent symbol was revealed.

"He is Jaffa," one of them whispered, starting a volley of whispers between the group.  These soon grew in volume and turned into angry shouts.

The men knew of the Goa'uld and did not have a particularly peaceful relationship with them.  They expressed their hatred for the Jaffa as they began to viciously kick the unconscious Jaffa.

They stopped their attack as they heard Sam beginning to stir slightly, she grunted weakly and moved her arm.  She twitched in pain before becoming still once more as an energy weapon shot her again.

One of the attackers carefully checked Sam's neck for a Goa'uld entry scar, on finding none he roughly picked her up and put her over his shoulder.  Two of the other men picked up Daniel and Jack and carried them away.  Two of the group remained by Teal'c.

"What should we do with this one?"

"Leave it," came the reply, laced with venom.

They quickly caught up with the rest of the group as they took Jack, Daniel and Sam back to their base, leaving Teal'c face down in a patch of mud.

*~*

As soon as the wormhole on Earth shut down with no signs of SG-1 Hammond ordered Sergeant Davis to redial the planet.  Once the wormhole was established Hammond closely watched the monitors for the appearance of the video feed from the MALP camera.  At first they saw nothing out of the ordinary but as the camera panned Hammond saw Teal'c laying on the ground, there was no sign of the rest of SG-1.

"Scrub SG-2's mission, get them to the briefing room ASAP," Hammond ordered.  SG-2 had been scheduled to depart on a standard recon mission in ten minutes and therefore was geared up and ready to depart.

*~*

Two of SG-11 who had been dispatched with SG-2 with the sole purpose of retrieving Teal'c brought him back to the SGC on a stretcher, he appeared to be unconscious but stable.  Once Teal'c had been rushed off to the infirmary they reported to Hammond.

"There was no sign of SG-1 in the immediate vicinity Sir, but there was some evidence of a fire fight.  SG-2 is carrying out a standard search pattern."

"Thank you Captain," Hammond replied with a sigh.

*~*

Sam grunted and tried to roll over but her muscles were not responding properly. She managed to move slightly before falling back with an audible sigh.  Forcing her eyes open she saw a bleak metal wall in front of her.  

The tiled floor beneath her was cold and uncomfortable, especially as every muscle in her body was aching.  Even muscles she had previously been unaware of were now screaming in pain.  She also had a painful and uncomfortable pins and needles sensation in her hands and feet.

After trying and failing to move, Sam decided to give up on consciousness for a while and she let sleep retake her.

When she awoke her eyes opened on the same wall.  With a significant amount of effort Sam managed to roll over onto her back.  Panting slightly she looked up at the ceiling.  From the construction of the room it appeared that they were at least as technologically advanced as Earth.  Probably more so, if their weapons were anything to go by.

Scanning the room as much as she could without moving, Sam could spot no obvious flaws in the construction of the cell.  There did not even appear to be a door but she figured that is was masked by one of the wall panels.

Moving her head Sam could see Colonel O'Neill lying on his side and Daniel lying face down on the cold floor, still unconscious.  Concern grew inside her when she realised that Teal'c was not with them.  She hoped that he had escaped and gone back to the SGC for back up. 

Thinking back, Sam had seen Teal'c hit twice but she knew that it could have been more than that and so as much as she wanted it to be so, she could not see how he could have got away.  Rationally she thought that killing Teal'c did not make sense since they could have killed the rest of them but had not.

After much straining Sam pulled herself into a sitting position, leaning heavily on the wall for support.  As she sat, the room swayed significantly but with some deep breathing she managed to keep the room level and in focus.

After a few minutes she heard a groan coming from Colonel O'Neill.

"Sir?"

"Carter?" came the slightly muffled reply.

"Yes Sir."

"What were those things?"

"I don't know Sir, some kind of energy weapon."

"I got that."

Sam noticed some strained breathing coming from O'Neill and was jut about to ask if he was all right when he spoke again.

"I can't move," he admitted.

"Yes Sir, it should wear off soon," Sam assured him.

"That's good to know.  So how come you can sit up already?" he asked.

"I've been conscious for a while Sir."

"Wonderful," he said dryly.  "So where are Daniel and Teal'c?"

"Daniel's just behind you, he's till out.  Teal'c's not here Sir," Sam said, slightly nervously.

"He's not?"

"No Sir, he wasn't here when I woke up."

"Okay.  Have our 'hosts' visited yet?" he asked quietly, still absorbing the news of Teal'c disappearance. 

"No Sir."

"That's something, I guess.  Hey Daniel...Daniel!" Jack shouted.  He blindly swung his arm until it made contact with the archaeologist.  Sam saw Daniel react as he was hit on the shoulder.

"What happened?" Daniel asked as soon as he was able.  His voice was muffled since his face was pressed against the floor.

Knowing that he would not be able to move, Sam slowly crawled across the cell and with some effort helped Daniel onto his back.

He had the beginnings of a spectacular black eye and a scratch on his temple.

"You okay?" Sam asked, upon seeing his injuries.

"Yeah," Daniel said slowly.  After a moment he sighed deeply.

"Daniel?" Sam asked, looking at him with concern.

"I lost another pair of glasses.  I really should start buying them in bulk," he grumbled.

Suddenly the door slid open, as Sam had thought it was concealed behind a wall panel.  Two men stood in the doorway; one of them held a silver weapon in his hand.  It looked vaguely similar to a handgun but of an obviously advanced design.  They entered the cell and approached Sam.

"You will come with us," one of them said to her.

"No, she won't," Jack stressed.

"She will," one of them countered, raising the weapon.

"I'm in command, take me instead, " Jack pleaded.

The men ignored Jack's plea.  The unarmed man dragged Sam from her sitting position.  Half under her own steam and half carried she was escorted from the cell.  With Jack and Daniel's weakened states they were unable to stop them from taking her away.

Sam did not appreciate being dragged from the cell but could not summon the energy to fight back.  They took her to a small room where she was handcuffed to a chair.  The chair was the major feature in the room, made of cold metal with metal bindings on the arms.  The only other object in the room was a small cabinet.  The room gave Sam an overwhelming sense of foreboding.

Once she was secured the men started questioning her.  At first the questions were routine and Sam reeled off the answers, just as she had countless times before.  They then started asking about why she had not been affected by the weapon as the others had and questions about Earth, the SGC and its defences.  Sam kept quiet, it was not the first time she had been asked these questions.

With one of the two men questioning her, the other walked slowly to the cabinet in the corner.  He pulled out a needle filled with a vivid blue liquid and approached Sam slowly.  Confined by the chair Sam was unable to resist as the needle was inserted into the crook of her arm and the liquid injected into her veins.

*~*~*

**So let me know what you think of this one please.  I always like to know!!!******


	2. Chapter 2

So,  as promised here's chapter 2…I know it's been a little while between updates, I promise that I'll try and get a chapter 3 of this and chapter 10 of 'Against the Wall' done and posted as soon as possible.

**Thanks to Naliza, my wonderful beta!!**

**I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say here but can't for the life of me remember what it was…oh well, it'll come back to me…maybe!!  So while I try and remember what it was here's the chapter…**

***~*~***

Sam was escorted back to the cell.  She managed to walk back, rather than being carried.  The men, who were holding her firmly by her upper arms, shoved her roughly inside.  She stumbled slightly but quickly regained her footing, turned and smiled at the men.

"Thanks, I had a wonderful time," Sam said with obvious sarcasm.

Jack looked at her and smiled slightly, acknowledging the bad influence he had been on her.  Quickly looking her over he could see no obvious injuries, which was quite a relief to him.

"Carter, you okay?" he asked once the door had closed, leaving SG-1 alone.

"Yes Sir.  Just a few questions, no big deal," Sam replied as she sat down on the floor.

"Did you ask about Teal'c?"

"Yes Sir.  They said that he was not welcome in their facility," she replied, her voice laced with anger.

"So he's not here?"

"It wouldn't appear so, Sir."

"Did they say what they want?" Daniel asked.

"No," Sam replied with a shrug.

"I don't know about you two but something seems really off here."

"I agree Sir."

"We're locked in a cell Jack and we have no idea where Teal'c is, of course something's off," Daniel added.

"Thank you Daniel," Jack replied, his voice laden with sarcasm.  "There's something else."

Just as Jack finished what he was saying the door slid open once again.  Jack stood quickly and positioned himself in front of the two men, the same ones from before, who were now standing in the doorway.

"I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, from Earth, and you are?"

"I am Alamagor, this is Malatesar.  You will come with us now, Colonel Jack O'Neill."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because you have no choice," Alamagor said.  As he spoke Malatesar raised the weapon he held in his hand and pointed it directly at Jack's chest.  Not once did the Colonel show any visible reaction.  But as Malatesar shifted his aim first to Sam and then Daniel, he could not prevent a slight flinch from crossing his features.

Alamagor smiled as Malatesar kept the weapon aimed at Daniel.  Jack relented and with a shrug followed Alamagor out of the cell.  Without warning Malatesar fired the weapon but Daniel reacted quickly by hitting the deck.  The bolt of energy emitted from the weapon impacted on the wall almost immediately, just behind the spot where Daniel had been standing the second before.

Malatesar turned and sealed the cell door behind him, laughing cruelly the whole time.

Frowning Sam offered her hand to Daniel and he used it pull himself into a sitting position.

"You okay, Daniel?"

"Yeah.  You thought of a way out of this place?"

"Not one that doesn't involve some C4 and a couple of heavily armed SG teams."

"Well, I did get the gate open and send the code red.  Hammond will send a rescue team."

"How will they know where we are?  I mean for all we know we could be on a different planet.  It's what Hathor did."

"Sam, I can't believe I'm going to say this but you're thinking way too much."

*~*

Daniel did not want to admit it but he was beginning to worry.  Jack had been gone for a long time, much longer than Sam had been.  He was all too aware of Jack's mouth and the trouble it could land him in.

Daniel's musings were interrupted by the door sliding open.  He expected it to be their kidnappers returning Jack.  From the look on Sam's face he could see she was thinking the same.  They were both surprised when they saw Alamagor and Malatesar standing alone in the doorway.  They shot to their feet and tried to look past the two men for any sign of O'Neill.

"Where is Colonel O'Neill?" Sam asked.

"He is none of your concern," Alamagor stated simply, with no emotion in his voice.

Sam looked at him, an incredulous look on her face.

"You're wrong, we…" Daniel started but quickly stopped speaking as Malatesar stepped forward and grabbed him roughly by the upper arm.

Sam reacted and managed to land a punch across Malatesar's face before Alamagor pulled her away and threw her roughly to the floor.  For his own part, Daniel did his best to break from Malatesar's iron grip, in order to take the weapon from his other hand.  But as a fist impacted against his already bruised eye, he too fell to the floor just outside the cell.

Sam and Daniel briefly made eye contact, assuring each other that they were both alright without words before the door slid shut, leaving Daniel with Alamagor and Malatesar and Sam alone in the cell.

*~*

Sam nervously paced the cell.  Although she was not normally a nervous person there was something about this place that was making her particularly tense.  It was a feeling which was heightened by the disappearance of Teal'c, Colonel O'Neill and now, apparently Daniel as well.

She chose not to fight as Alamagor and Malatesar returned for her and escorted her to a different room than the one she had been in before.  Her eyes scanned the assembled technology, her analytical mind assessing them for possible functions.  Despite having no real idea as to what their actual function was the overwhelming sense of foreboding had returned with a vengeance.

Sam was strapped into a large metal chair in the centre of the room; her mind racing with thoughts as to what was going to happen to her now.

*~*~*

Yes I know, another cliff hanger.  You'd think I purposefully set out to write them wouldn't you?? ;-) 

So that was chapter 2, I'll be ever so very appreciative, if you submit a review.  I'm quite a fan of that feedback stuff…that and shoes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, in recent weeks I have noticed a bit of a decline in the amount of feedback I've been getting for both this and 'Against The Wall'.  For the last chapter of this I had 4 reviews and 3 for 'Against the Wall'.  **

**I don't write for feedback, I write for myself but at the same time I was wondering if this has something to do with the quality of what I'm writing, what can I say, I have 'Self-esteem issues'.  I know that it's not always convenient or possible to review and I also know that ff is having a few issues at the moment but feedback really does encourage me to write and constructive criticism (as long as it is constructive and not a flame) helps me to write better, if I don't know what I'm doing wrong or right then how can I get better??  So please find a few seconds and let me know what you think...please.  Now I'm really hoping that didn't sound too whiny, I'm honestly not normally a moaner!**

**Thanks to Naliza, for betaing and for putting up with my depressed ramblings when things get bad.   Seriously, your friendship means a lot!! :) **

**So, on to your regularly scheduled programming...**

***~*~***

Daniel bolted up into a sitting position.  He immediately regretted it as the world starting spinning around him.  His eye was throbbing painfully and very carefully he started probing the area with a finger.  He inhaled sharply as he discovered the area was very swollen and tender.

Looking at his surroundings he realised that it was not the same cell that he had been in before.  To make matters worse he had absolutely no idea how he ended up there.  The last thing he remembered was being hit by Malatesar and then seeing Sam shut in the cell on her own.  He could not explain the gap in his memory and it was causing him some concern.

This new cell was of a slightly different design to the one he had been in before.  The room was significantly smaller and the panels on one of the walls were of a different design. 

Whereas the rest of the walls were covered in floor to ceiling panels, that one particular wall was covered in panels which were roughly six inches square, some of which were slightly raised.

Daniel ran his hand across the raised panels, one of them felt different to the others as his hand brushed over the smooth surface.  It felt rough to the touch, almost like sandpaper.

He traced his fingers over the panel, there seemed to be no discernable pattern to its markings.  Running his fingers around the edge of the panel, Daniel found a flaw and so he dug his nails in.  He strained until he managed to prise the panel off, the inside was a jumble of crystals and cables.

Hoping not to electrocute himself or to set off an alarm he started moving the crystals around, a task made much more difficult by the fact he was without his glasses.  After a few minutes he jumped back in surprise as the concealed door slid open and the bright corridor was revealed.

He carefully looked out of the door and saw nothing, just long corridors with the same full length metallic panels lining both walls.  There were no obvious markings or anything that would indicate where Sam and Jack could be.  He blindly played with a similar mechanism on the outside of his cell until he was able to let the door slid shut; he then went in search of his friends.

Walking the long identical hallways he started looking for anything similar to the mechanism he had seen outside his own cell.  When he eventually found what he was looking for he gently knocked twice on the door, unsure of what he would find on the other side.

An identical knock answered back from the other side of door.  Daniel knocked another three times on the door before a quiet voice addressed him.

"Daniel?" came Jack's voice.

"Jack?"

"Yeah.  Open the door, Daniel," Jack said, exasperation evident in his voice.

"Give me a minute."

Daniel played with the mechanism, cursing himself for not having paid attention when closing the door to his own cell.  The technology was nothing like he had ever seen before but after a few seconds the door slid open.

"Nice," Jack said, appreciatively.  "Carter?"

"I don't know, I haven't found her yet."

"Well, let's go get Carter and get the hell outta Dodge."

"No arguments from me," Daniel agreed as he stepped back to allow Jack past him.

They quickly found another cell.  Daniel knocked gently on the door but there was no reply.  With some trepidation Daniel opened the door.  Sam was lying on the floor, her back to the door.  Jack quickly crossed to her and reached out to check for her pulse.  His stomach was churning slightly as he reached inside the collar of her T-shirt.  As he found a strong and regular pulse he breathed a sigh of relief.

He quickly checked her for injuries before gently rolling her onto her back.  When she did not respond, he shook her shoulder and called out her name.  She stirred at his touch and forced herself to open her eyes with only the slightest grunt of discomfort.

"Carter, you okay?"

Sam did not speak but gave O'Neill a weak smile and a thumbs up.

"What happened?" Jack asked with concern.

"I don't know," Sam replied slowly, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Never mind, we'll get to that later.  For now let's get out of here," Jack said as he helped Sam to her feet.  "So Daniel, have you seen a door marked 'Exit' or any 'Way out' signs?"

"No," Daniel replied shortly.

"Sir, we need to find a GDO."

"Right but Daniel, start coming up with alternatives."

They searched a number of rooms but found no sign of their equipment or their captors, just a lot of alien technology that Sam looked far too interested in for Jack's liking.

"Does this seem a bit easy to anyone else?" Sam asked, looking around the deserted hallways.

"Let's not complain right now," Jack replied but he acknowledged that the same thought had occurred to him.  This feeling was solidified when they came across a door with a sign, in a script which Jack did not recognise.

"Daniel?"

"It says…exit."

"Really?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Yes, it looks like a derivation of…" Daniel stopped as Jack held up a finger to silence him.

Sam managed to open the door.  Jack half expected to find a battalion of heavily armed men on the other side but instead saw a pathway, which appeared to be solidly paved leading into a heavily wooded area.

Jack, Daniel and Sam all shared looks as they left the building behind them and headed off into the woods. 

***~*~***

**So there it was...**


	4. Chapter 4

**I know it's been a while since I posted last but real life got in the way a bit, it's annoying that way isn't it!!!**

**I have to say sorry for the rant in the last chapter, I'm going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment and I was having a bad day when I posted.  Thank you so much to everyone who sent some feedback my way, it's really good to know that people are actually enjoying what I'm writing!!**

**Another big thank you to Naliza for taking up the beta pen (or should that be cursor) and just being an all round great person!! :) **

***~*~***

Jack decided to stay off the path leading through the woods since the chances were good that their escape would have been discovered by then.  He figured that their kidnappers would consider the pathway as good a place as any to start looking for them.  In order to find their way back to the Stargate though they still kept to the general direction of the path but stayed in the dense undergrowth.

Jack stopped suddenly as his sensitive hearing picked out the sound of twigs breaking in the distance, the unmistakable sound of people approaching.  Using hand signals, he ordered Sam and Daniel to stop and take cover.

They all took cover in thick brush close by, not knowing if it would offer enough protection but it was the best they could do under the circumstances.  As he heard the figures draw nearer Jack deliberately slowed his breathing in a bid to give his team the best chance of staying hidden.  

As the figures came into view, he was surprised to see them dressed in the drab olive green of the SGC rather than the blue and grey clothes of their captors.

Jack stepped out of the hiding place; the weapons of the approaching SG team were immediately raised.  As they recognised Colonel O'Neill they relaxed slightly and lowered their weapons.

"Colonel O'Neill?"

"Major Griff," O'Neill replied with a slight nod.

"Is everything alright, Sir?" Griff asked as Sam and Daniel emerged from the undergrowth.

"We don't know where Teal'c is, we need to find him."

"He's back at the SGC; I'm not sure what his condition is though."

"Excuse me, his condition?" Sam asked, looking at Griff with concern.

"He was found unconscious not far from the gate.  I'm sorry I don't know more than that.  Shouldn't we head back home, Sir?"

"I don't think there's anything keeping us here," Jack agreed.  He took Griff's offered 9mm while Carter and Daniel both accepted weapons from two of the other members of SG-2.

The journey back to the Stargate was uneventful; there was no sign of their captors.  Daniel could not help but to feel uneasy as they returned to the clearing where the Stargate was located.  He almost expected an ambush to occur while he was waiting for Lieutenant Martin to dial the gate but nothing out of the ordinary occurred.  Looking around he noticed that Jack and Sam both appeared tense, a lot more than what the situation probably warranted.  Relief washed over Daniel as he stepped through the event horizon and rematerialised back at the SGC.

General Hammond stood at the bottom of the ramp; he gave his officers a good look-over as they walked towards him.  The relief at having his flagship team back and seemingly in one piece was immense but his jaw was locked in a bid to maintain a professional face.

"Welcome back SG-1," he said, as O'Neill approached him.

"Thank you General.  How's Teal'c, Sir?"

"He's fine Colonel, his symbiote is taking care of his injuries.  I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."

"Injuries, Sir?" Carter asked.  She had assumed that he had been suffering from the after-effects of the weapon and nothing more.

"It seems that the inhabitants of P2X-739 didn't take too kindly to him."

"Sir?" Jack asked, his eyebrows raised to put emphasis on his question.

"They beat him pretty badly.  You didn't get the same treatment?" he asked.  The only injury he could see was Daniel's rather spectacular black eye.

"Not really.  One of them hit me when Sam and I tried to escape," Daniel explained, noticing Hammond's look of concern.

"Okay, get yourself checked out in the infirmary first.  We can debrief when you're done."

"Thank you General," Jack said as he led the team out of the gate room, handing his weapon to an SF as he passed.  

SG-2 waited in the gate room, Griff knew that Hammond would want to talk to him.

"Any problems, Major?"

"No Sir.  SG-1 found us; we saw no sign of any locals, hostile or otherwise."

"They escaped?"

"It would appear so; we didn't really have time to discuss it."

"Okay, thank you Major.  Please report to the infirmary."

"Yes Sir."

*~*

Jack, Daniel and Sam walked into the infirmary and noticed that Teal'c was laying on one of the beds in the corner of the room.  The look he was wearing would be indiscernible to any outside observer but screamed exasperation and boredom to the rest of SG-1.

As he saw them approach, he immediately tried to stand.  Janet seemed to appear from nowhere and practically forced the Jaffa to stay in bed.  It was obvious why the Doctor did not want him out of bed.  Despite his accelerated healing, his face was covered in bruises and his left arm was in a sling.

Seeing them standing just inside the room, she approached SG-1.

"Is everything alright," she asked, looking closely at each of them in turn.

"Yep, no problems," Jack replied flippantly. 

"That's quite a black eye, Daniel.  You come with me and Colonel…Sam take a seat, someone will get to you as soon as possible."

"That's great Doc but how's Teal'c doing?"

"Sorry," she apologized for having forgotten that they would obviously be concerned about their friend.  "He's going to be just fine.  He was quite badly beaten but his symbiote is taking care of the injuries.  He'll be out of here by the end of the day."

"Good."

"Daniel, if you're ready," Janet said as she lead him off to one of the bed.  Once he was seated she gently ran a finger along the worst of the bruising, assessing for any injury more serious than a bruise.

Daniel gritted his teeth as Janet prodded the swelling but he could not stop the sharp intake of breath as she touched a particularly sore spot.

"Did you lose consciousness?" she asked.  Daniel's silence did not go unnoticed.  "Daniel?"

"I don't know what happened really.  One minute Sam and I were trying to escape, the next I was waking up in a cell."

"So that's a yes."

"I don't know.  I honestly don't think it was because of this," he replied gesturing at his eye.

"Well, I want to get an X-ray of that eye and a head CT to start with," Janet stated in a tone that left him no room for any arguments.

"Fine," Daniel sighed.

Leaving Daniel with one of the nurses, Janet went to see Sam who was still sitting on a bed, waiting to be seen.

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Sam replied with a smile.

"So what happened?"

Sam gave a brief rundown of what happened.  Jack, who was sitting on the next bed, interrupted her on a number of occasions, offering his own commentary on events.

After hearing their story and drawing out confessions of memory loss, she insisted on giving both Jack and Sam a CAT scan.  With all three of them reluctantly reporting significant gaps in memory, she was concerned.  The rest of their examinations showed nothing out of the ordinary and after drawing blood, she sent both of them to CT.

She reported her findings and concerns to General Hammond but was almost immediately called away to treat Captain Rush, who was suffering from a severe allergic reaction to an alien plant he had come into contact with two days before.  Janet had thought that the worst was over but the symptoms had flared up again. 

His face and neck were swollen, as was his right arm, which was at least twice its usual size.  He looked thoroughly fed up at the prospect of an extended stay in the infirmary.

If it was possible, Teal'c had looked even less pleased at being under Doctor's Fraiser care.  Once she was free, she returned to the Jaffa's bed.

"Doctor Fraiser.  I am well enough to be released," Teal'c implored.

"Well, I'm not so sure.  I want to make sure you're really alright before I release you.  You should be out for the debriefing though.  In the mean time…rest, hat's an order."

Teal'c nodded his agreement.  It was very unusual for him to be confined to the infirmary but his symbiote had been injured in the attack and was therefore taking much longer than usual to heal him.  He entered a light state of kelno'reem in order to aid his recovery, but it was not easy in the busy environment of the infirmary. With concentration he was finally able to achieve the desired state.

*~*

Janet cleared SG-1, she still had major concerns about their apparent gaps in memories but the CAT scans had shown nothing, neither had the toxicology results, which she had rushed through the laboratory.

After giving them all a stern lecture about further lapses in memory or other unexplained symptoms, she had no other choice but to let them go.  Thankfully Daniel's X-ray had shown that his injury was nothing more than a bad bruise and as Teal'c was well on his way to recovery, she released him along with the others.

SG-1 sat around the table in the briefing room, along with Hammond and Major Griff, who was representing SG-2.

Daniel started to explain what had happened when they had arrived on the planet.  Sam took over the narrative, starting in the cell and Daniel finished the tale, documenting their escape.  Jack stayed quiet most of the time, interjecting sarcastic comments and observations at what he saw to be opportune moments.

"Does anyone have anything else to add?" Hammond asked.

A chorus of "No Sirs" came from around the table.

"Well in that case, you're dismissed.  SG-1, I'm giving you three days of down-time and I actually expect all of you to leave.  I do not anticipate seeing any of you until Monday," Hammond said seriously, it was not a tone he used often but they all recognised it.

"Yes Sir," Sam sighed.

Jack lead them out of the briefing room, he tried to encourage the rest of the team to come to dinner but Sam and Daniel both headed to their labs to do some work before their enforced vacation.

*~*

The next morning, Hammond was in the control room, checking that everything was running smoothly.  Sergeant Davis had just begun to report that everything was fine when the display on the monitors changed.  Instead of showing the regular diagnostic screens of the gate, seemingly random characters were being displayed instead.  Hammond looked expectantly down at the Sergeant.

"I have no idea, Sir.  I'm totally locked out," Davis explained, frantically tapping at the keyboard.

The iris span shut before the monitors flickered and shut off completely, leaving all those in the control room sharing blank looks.

***~*~***

**So there's chapter 4...I'm working on chapter 5 whenever I get the time and I promise that chapter 10 of Against The Wall will appear as soon as I can manage it.  Thank you for your patience.  **

**So please let me know what you think of this chapter!!  Thanks!! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Here's chapter 5, I haven't got much to say here (for once) except to thank Naliza, my great beta.

**So I'm just going to get on with the story…**

***~*~***

"Sergeant, what the hell is going on?" Hammond demanded.

"I don't know Sir.  The computers have died, I'm frozen out.  I can't do anything unless I get access Sir," Davis said.

"Well, get access then."

"It's not that simple Sir," he tried to explain.

"Well how _SIMPLE_ is it then?"

"I don't know.  It depends if it's just affected the dialling computer or all the base systems."

"I want an assessment as soon as possible, take whatever and whoever you need to get this fixed.  I want control of the gate back ASAP."

"Sir, we really could use Major Carter for this.  She knows more about the system than anyone."

"I'll call her," Hammond sighed.  He had hoped to keep SG-1 off the base, he should have known that it would not have been so simple; things never were where SG-1 was concerned.

*~*

Sam dialled up the speed on the treadmill at the fitness centre, she was running hard and her heart was pounding.  She stared straight ahead, ignoring the people around her, including the guy that smiled at her as he had passed by.

She always went to the gym after bad missions in order to allow the exercise to take away some of the memories.  Still this was one of the hardest workouts she had put herself through for years.  

Looking at the display, she noticed that she had completed her pre-programmed workout.  Slowing the machine into a comfortable jog, she started a cool down; the last thing she needed was a pulled muscle.  After a few minutes she shut off the machine and, grabbing the towel she had hung over the side of the treadmill, wiped the sweat off her face.

"You in training?" came a deep male voice behind her.

"Excuse me?" she asked, turning to face him.  He was tall and quite attractive, he reminded her of Martouf.  Thinking about him brought a pang of grief back to her.

"Are you in training for something?  You were going pretty hard."

"No," Sam replied slightly shortly as she started to the necessary stretches.

"One of those days then?" he asked conversationally.

"Something like that," she replied, trying to be as non-committal as possible.

"I'm Tom," he smiled, offering a hand.

"Sam," she said as she took his outstretched hand.

"Are you done here?  Maybe we could get a coffee?" he asked.

Sam smiled slightly, she was taken aback a little bit and it was also the last thing she wanted right now.  She came here to work out, not to get dates, especially from a man who reminded her of someone she had been forced to kill.

"I've really got to get to work," she lied seamlessly.

"Maybe later then?"

_"Later," came the aggression filled voice._   

The simple question brought something back to her, Alamagor's voice.  She quickly shook it off.

"I'm sorry, I'm very bust at work at the moment," she replied.  It was the truth, she had a number of experiments she wanted to do but as it was at the SGC, she just could not do any of it while she was forced to take some downtime.  Not that the man in front of her knew that, she hoped that he would not press any more.  She really was not in the mood for his advances.

"That's okay, well it was nice to meet you Sam," Tom said, with a shrug.  He could take a hint when he needed to.

"You too," Sam replied distractedly.  She was thinking about the voice, as far as she could recall, Alamagor and Malatesar had never spoken to one another.

Shaking the memory off, Sam headed to the changing rooms, planning what she could do with her downtime.  Her ruminations were interrupted as her cell phone rang.

"Carter…

Really Sir?

I'll be there as soon as I can."

Sam hung up the phone with a smile, at least now she would have something to do.  She was mildly concerned since, from what Hammond had said, there was a major problem with all the base computers and the dialling computer had totally shut down.

*~*

The base was a flurry of activity when Sam arrived.  The SF's were rushing around and everyone with any knowledge of computers was doing their best to get the problem fixed.

She walked into the control room and was immediately struck by just how many people were in the room, she could not think of a time when it had been so packed.

Sergeant Davis was at his usual post, frantically tapping at the keyboard but he did not seem to making any progress.  She made her way over to him, he looked up as she approached, a grateful smile on his face.

"Sergeant, what happened here?"

"I don't know, the system just shut down," he replied with a shrug.

"What about the iris?" she asked, looking up at the protected Stargate with a quizzical look on her face.

"It shut itself, just before the system went down completely.  The screens showed random characters for a second before that."

"Right," Sam replied, deep in thought.  Still assessing the situation she took the workstation next to Davis.

As soon as she started work she realised that the problem was much more complex than she had first thought, it was going to take a while.

*~*

Almost six hours later Sam raked her fingers through her tousled hair.  With a deep sigh of relief she watched as the monitors around the room flickered back into life.

"Run a full diagnostic, Sergeant," Sam instructed as she stood and stretched out her aching muscles.

She walked slowly out of the control room and up towards General Hammond's office.  Seeing her arrive, Hammond waved her in with a hand.

"Major?" he asked, expectantly.

"We've got the system back; we're running a full diagnostic to make sure the system is functioning properly."

"What caused this, Major?"

"I don't know Sir but whatever it was; it did a pretty good job.  I'll hope to know more once we've got the results of the diagnostic."

"Good work, Major," Hammond offered with a smile.

"Thank you Sir," Sam replied, smiling broadly.

*~*  
  


"Jeez," Sam exhaled as the results of the diagnostic filled the screen in front of her.

"Major?" Davis asked, not recognising what she had seen.

"Basically a virus spread through the system but this is the most effective virus I've ever seen and it seems that it was programmed to particularly attack the dialling computer."

Sergeant Davis' eyebrows shot up as he grasped her insinuation.

"So, you're saying this was deliberate?"

"I don't know, but it looks that way.  It would have to be one hell of a coincidence."

"But who could do that, the system is supposed to be secure."

"I know.  I'll see if I can trace it but I'm not holding out much hope, this was one smart virus."

Sam was still trying to trace the origins of the virus two hours later.  It seemed to have wiped its tracks along with a sizable chunk of the data stored on the system.  Thankfully much of it could be restored from the back-ups.  As she gratefully took a refill of coffee from Sergeant Davis, she hit another dead end in her search.  She sighed as she realised that she had no more avenues to go down, the trail was dead.

"That's it," she exhaled, feeling utterly defeated.  She hated admitting defeat, she had invented a particle generator but she could not trace a computer virus and that was not sitting well with her.

"Major?"

"I can't trace this thing; it wiped every trace of itself from the system.  I'd better tell General Hammond," Sam replied.  She was resigned to the fact that Hammond would be less than pleased to learn that she did not really know what had caused it and how it had resulted in one of the most secure computer systems in the world to crash.

She was right, Hammond was definitely not pleased.

"I'm sorry Sir, there's nothing more I can do.  Whoever released this thing was smart and knows the system well; it did a lot of damage.  There are significant security systems, particularly on the dialling computer which are supposed to stop these things from happening."

"The system is secure again though?"

"Yes Sir.  I've made some improvements to the security but there are some more upgrades I'd like to try but they might take a while."

"But there's no immediate need."

"No Sir, but…"

"Major, you've been working for eight hours straight.  And to make it worse it's your day off.  Anything else can wait until after the weekend," he commented in a kind but commanding voice.

"Yes Sir," she agreed, reluctantly.

"Dismissed," he said genially.

"Yes Sir," Sam replied as she left his office.  She was almost glad to be leaving, her head was throbbing but as she had spent the best part of eight hours staring at a computer screen she was not particularly surprised.

She barely registered the drive home, once inside she flopped on the couch and shut her eyes for a second.

Once she reached a state of deep sleep her mind was invaded with a whirlwind of images -

Daniel being hit and falling outside the cell…

The interrogation room which had brought such a feeling of foreboding…

Alamagor and Malatesar's cruel faces…

Daniel and Colonel O'Neill losing consciousness during the initial attack…

"Later," came Alamagor's voice, loud and filled with anger.

Disorientated, she sat up and scanned the room for the source of the voice.  Slightly out of breath she sunk back into the couch as she realised that it had just been part of her dream.  Despite it being the second time she had heard the voice, she still had no memory of it happening.  

A cold shiver raced down her spine as she considered that maybe something had happened on P2X-739 that she could not remember and that could only be bad.

***~*~***

**So, please send some feedback my way, it's always good to know what you think!!**

**I hope to post chapter 11, the penultimate chapter, of Against the Wall either tomorrow or Wednesday, just as soon as I've put the finishing touches on it.******


	6. Chapter 6

So, here I am with another chapter, I know I've neglected this story slightly but now that I've finished 'Against the Wall' I'll be able to dedicate all the time that I do find to write fic to this story.  Hopefully that means that the updates may become slightly less sporadic, fingers crossed!!

**Anyway, thanks for the reviews!! :D**

**Naliza, my wonderful beta!!  You rock!!!!**

**Don't think I've got anything else to say except…Are you sitting comfortably?  Then I will begin…**

*~*~*

Sam shook the remnants of sleep from her brain as she realised that the phone was ringing.  

"Hello," she answered, her voice still slightly thick with sleep.

"Hey Carter," came the jovial voice of her commanding officer.

"Colonel," she replied.

"So Carter, pizza, beer and a movie?"

"Sounds good Sir," she replied after a moments thought.  It would give her the opportunity to find out if any of the others had been having flashbacks, subtly of course, lest they think she had finally lost it.

"19h30 alright you?"

"Yes Sir," she replied after a quick glance at the clock.  She still had time for a shower before it was time for her to leave.  She was stiff from her day at the SGC and her brief nap combined with the strange dream had left her feeling tenser than ever before.  Standing under the hot spray, letting it beat down on her stiff shoulders; some of the tension that had built up over the day was released.

The dream had been the second time she had heard the voice but she could still not recall it ever happening during their mission.  She wondered if there was a chance of it being a flashback of something that had occurred but due to her lapse in memory she could not recall the actual event.  She strained to recall more but could remember nothing additional except Alamagor's harsh and angry voice which was still ringing in her ears. 

*~*

Sam pulled up into Colonel O'Neill's drive and shut off the engine, after a few seconds she saw Daniel's car pull up beside her. Daniel appeared to be deep in conversation with Teal'c who was seated in the passenger seat.

Daniel looked up and saw Sam still sitting in her car.  He smiled quickly in her direction, as a way of greeting, and Teal'c turned and nodded to her.  

Sam quickly pulled her hand away from the door and grabbed the keys that were still in the ignition.  She had seen the look that Daniel had given her, he was nervous.  It was obvious to her that he was talking about her with Teal'c.  Teal'c was no better, the look of pure pity he had given her when he had turned only served to confirm her suspicions that her friends were talking about her behind her back.

She was about to turn the keys so that she could get away from her duplicitous team-mates when she heard Daniel call her name.  She pulled her keys from the ignition and stepped out of her car.

"Hi guys," she said cheerfully as she locked her car.

"You had a relaxing day?" Daniel asked with humour as they walked up to Jack's door.  He knew that Sam could never relax when she was being forced to stay off the base, not that it happened often.

"Not really.  The computer system at the SGC got hit by a virus, the whole thing shut down.  I spent all day trying to fix it."

"You're serious?" Daniel asked, nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Yep.  Everything was down, including the dialling computer.  Because the iris was shut SG-5 had to gate to the alpha site, apparently they didn't get the most friendly reception on P4Y-792."

"Has the problem been rectified?" Teal'c asked as Daniel knocked on the door.

"Yeah,  I wanted to make some improvements to the security systems but General Hammond ordered me to leave again."

Jack opened the door, his face adopting a definite look of dismay as he caught the tail end of the conversation.

"Carter, please tell me you haven't been at the SGC again," he said seriously.

"I have Sir but…" Sam started.

"Do I need to remind you that I ordered you to get a life?"

"No Sir but as I was trying to say, General Hammond called me in when the entire computer system shut down this morning," she replied, trying to keep any smugness out of her voice.

"Right," Jack said slowly as he let them in, Daniel laughed slightly as he stepped past.  "The computers went down?" he asked, his eyebrows raised, as he grasped the potential consequences.

"The whole system was down for over six hours."

"Good thing the Goa'uld didn't come knocking, that could have gotten messy."

"No actually.  It's the strangest thing; the iris shut itself just before the system shut down.  It must have been programmed into the virus."

"Your politer computer viruses will do that," he joked.

"Yes Sir," Sam said politely, ignoring his joke.  "I just don't understand why a virus that freezes the dialling computer, shuts down the entire base systems and wipes a massive amount of data, effectively shutting down the SGC but still closes the iris first."

"Well as…fascinating as all this is.  We are on leave and so can this all wait until Monday, please," he implored.

Sam shrugged and sat in her usual seat on the couch.

Jack was glad that Sam had not gone into great detail about the state of the computer systems.  The mild headache that had been in the background all day probably would have erupted into a full blown migraine, courtesy of a Sam Carter explanation.

With a sigh, he acknowledged that he was definitely feeling his age today, his knee and back were aching, much more than they usually did, Goa'uld torture not withstanding.  He could not even blame bad weather; it had been a warm and sunny day.

He grabbed an assortment of drinks from the fridge, staring at the artificial light spilling out over the floor he suddenly felt angry.  His grip on the bottle in his hand tightened as he fought the urge to throw it across the room.  His sudden anger was directed not towards those who had imprisoned them but at his team, his friends.  They should not have allowed themselves to be captured and he blamed Sam, Daniel and Teal'c for it.

He put the bottles down; they rocked and clattered as he deposited them with unsteady hands.  He thumped his fist against the counter as he felt the inexplicable anger boil in his veins.

"Jack?" Daniel called from the living room.

Jack blinked quickly and shook his head before he grabbed the bottles and took them through to his guests.

*~*

Jack and Sam were in the midst of a good natured debate over the scientific military inconsistencies on the film they had just finished watching.  Sam was notorious for picking holes in movies, especially those with science in them.  Jack had been drawn in and was now trying to make her see it for what it was, a movie and not a documentary.

Daniel excused himself with a vague mumble, Jack and Sam barely heard him.  Sam had launched into a tirade about 'Independence Day' which had brought an exclamation of 'For crying out loud' from O'Neill.

Daniel shut and locked the bathroom and leant heavily back against it.  He had experienced the overwhelming need to get away from them, from Jack and Sam and their petty incessant squabbling.

His initial instinct had been to leave the house completely and go where he wanted, do what he wanted to do.  Where he would not be asked to compromise on anything, what film to watch, what pizza to get, what to drink.  It bitterly occurred to him that he was always being asked to compromise, he was forced to neglect translation and miss archaeological digs which could prove vital because of his 'duty' to SG-1.

He heard Sam call his name as he washed his hands.  He opened the door and was met by a concerned face.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied slowly, not understanding her concern.

"You were in there a while," she clarified.  With a shrug she went back to the living room.

Daniel stood and thought it over for a moment.  As far as he knew he had only been in there a minute but he quickly shrugged it off and went back to his friends.

*~*~*

**Ooooh…anyone intrigued yet???  As you said Dark_Faith, I'm going to keep you guessing until I want you to know what's going on, I promise you all that you'll find what's happening with SG-1 soon…just as soon as I've worked it out myself!!!! And it's funny because I'm not joking, maybe one day I'll plan a story…and on that day chocolate will be considered a low fat, healthy snack!**

**Got anything to say??  Take thirty seconds and let me know!!!**


	7. Chapter 7

**So here I am again, with another chapter.  Still no plan as such but I've got an idea about where to take this, no please don't die of shock!!  Anyway, I've got chapter 8 almost ready for posting, finished touches etc. to do but that should be posted in the next couple of days!!**

**A big thank you to Naliza for betaing this for me and a thanks to those who sent feedback, you guys rock!!! :)**

**I don't know when I last said this but SG-1 aren't mine and they never will be, I'm just messing with their heads for a while but will fix them up when I'm done!!**

***~*~***

Daniel rolled over and silenced the buzzing alarm clock with bitter emotions running through his head.  Despite the amount of times in the past that he had to rise before the sun, he still found it extremely difficult.  Actively forcing himself to wake up completely he rolled off the bed and dragged himself into the shower.  He winced as he stepped under the cool spray, he hated cold showers but it was the best way to wake him up, that and multiple cups of strong coffee.

He threw on some clothes and after spending a few minutes tracking down his keys he was ready to leave.  With a sigh, he heavily put down his keys on the small table by the door.  He shrugged off his jacket as he went back into the living room, kicking off his shoes as he sunk deeply into the couch, releasing a small sigh of delight as he did.

He reached for the phone and dialled the SGC switchboard from memory.

"This is Doctor Daniel Jackson, could you give Colonel Jack O'Neill a message.  Tell him I won't be coming in today.  I don't want to," he said quickly as soon as the female voice answered.

"Yes Sir," she replied slowly.  It was definitely unusual for any personnel to call in to take a day off but she had never known someone to say that they just did not want to come in.  She was particularly surprised as it was Doctor Jackson, who was famous for putting in long hours on base.

"Thank you," Daniel replied before hanging up.

Dropping the phone on the couch, he stood.  Peeling off clothes as he went, he fell back into bed and promptly fell asleep.

*~*

Airman Olivia West sat at the security station, waiting for either Colonel O'Neill or General Hammond to arrive on the base.  The message she had just received from Dr. Jackson was weighing in her mind, it was strange, even for the SGC.

She looked up as she heard someone approach.  She was relieved to see that it was Colonel O'Neill walking up to the station.  He smiled at her as he went through the familiar procedure of signing in.

"Excuse me Colonel," she said once the security checks had been completed.

"Yeah," he replied turning to face her.

"I have a message for you from Dr. Jackson."

"Really?" Jack asked, momentarily taken aback.

"Yes Sir.  He said that he wouldn't be coming to the base today."

"And did he say why?"

"Um, yes Sir.  He said he didn't want to."

"What?" Jack asked, trying to refrain from shouting at the young Airman who was only relaying a message.  Daniel, he could shout at.

"That was all he said, sorry Sir," she said apologetically.

Jack just shook his head, both to absolve the Airman of any responsibility she may feel for Daniel's message and shock at the actions of the Archaeologist.  

He stalked to his office and right away started dialling Daniel's home number, the phone was quickly picked up but then almost immediately hung up.  Cursing him, Jack tried his cell phone, but it appeared to be switched off.

He left his office and found General Hammond in the corridor just outside.

"General.  Apparently Daniel doesn't want to come in today," he said, his voice was dripping with sarcasm

"So I heard," Hammond replied.

"Well he doesn't _want _to answer his phone either.  With your permission I'd like to head over there."

"Good idea Colonel," Hammond agreed.

*~*

Jack hammered on Daniel's door, who either was not in or choosing not to answer.  He grabbed his keys from his pocket and let himself into Daniel's apartment using the spare key.

"You'd better be here Daniel," he muttered.  He was not in the mood to search for the errant Archaeologist.

"Daniel, you here?" he called out.

There was no sign of him but his jacket was thrown over the back of the couch and a pair of shoes had been kicked under the coffee table.  Jack went to the bedroom, tripping over a shirt and a T-Shirt as he went.  As he pushed open the door he saw the room was dark, the drapes firmly closed.

Jack could just see Daniel's feet sticking out from under the covers.  Jack opened the drapes, flooding the room with light.  Daniel did not stir at the influx of light, it was only when Jack pulled back the covers that he started to wake up.

"What?" Daniel grumbled as the light assaulted his eyes.

"DANIEL, GET UP NOW," Jack bellowed, as he realised that Daniel did not look or sound unwell.

Daniel sat bolt upright as Jack's voice reverberated through the room.

"What do you want?  Isn't it too early for this Jack?"

"Too early, it's 09h00 Daniel," Jack said, disbelieving.

"What, that can't be right," Daniel replied, his brow furrowed.  He looked over at the clock by his bed, his eyes widening as it confirmed what Jack had said.  "I must have slept through my alarm."

"Or not," Jack said, his voice angry but softening slightly as he looked at his friend sitting up in bed, looking very confused.

"Jack, what's going on?" he asked.

"You don't remember calling in to the SGC saying you weren't coming in?"

"No," he replied.  Still obviously confused.

"You said that you didn't want to come in."

"I did?" he asked, still confused and obviously embarrassed, the faintest pink tint appearing on his cheeks.

"Yeah Daniel, you did.  You really don't remember?"

"No, I think I'd better see Janet," he muttered.

"Yeah, get dressed.  I'll give you a lift in."

"Thanks.  Sorry Jack"

"Hey, don't worry about it," he replied, leaving Daniel to get dress.  Although neither of them had mentioned it, Jack was pretty sure that their capture during the last mission must have something to do with Daniel's memory lapse and that did not sit well with him.

After a minute Daniel emerged.  He looked deep in thought, which was not an unusual look for him but to Jack there was something different about his friend's current appearance.  Something deep was contained in the innocent face.

They drove to the mountain in near silence, Jack made a couple of half-hearted attempts at conversation but with Daniel offering one word answers the dialogue quickly died out.

"You catch the game last night?" Jack asked in a last ditched attempt to get a reaction from Daniel.

"No," Daniel mumbled.

"Tie game almost to the end of the third period."

"Great," came the monotone response.

With a sigh, Jack gave up and switched his full attention back to the road.  Daniel sat and stared out of the window for much of the journey.  He knew something was wrong, something that could probably be traced back to their time on P2X-739.  Whenever he thought of the mission he got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach and that was something that he did not understand.  That particular feeling was usually reserved for the _really _bad missions and the latest mission did not fit into that category.  Not yet at least.

*~*

Janet sat in her office, Daniel's ever expanding medical file was open on the desk and his latest CT scan was being displayed on the monitor.  General Hammond had warned her about Daniel's unusual behaviour.  She had been trawling through the information she had recorded the previous week.  Just like then, she was unable to find anything out of the ordinary.

She looked up from the paper strewn across her desk as she heard Colonel O'Neill's voice in the infirmary.  She went out to meet him, smiling slightly in greeting as she saw him and Daniel.

"Colonel, Daniel, everything alright?"

"Apparently I've had another memory lapse," Daniel admitted.

"Yeah, he phoned in and said he didn't want to come in today."

"Okay, how are you feeling Daniel.  Any headache, nausea?" 

"No, I feel fine Janet."

"Okay, well take a seat and we can take it from there.  Before I get started, Colonel, how are you feeling?"

"Can't complain, you know."

"Okay.  General Hammond asked that you go to his office when you arrive."

"Thanks Doc."

Leaving the infirmary, Jack went to see Hammond, he was not particularly looking forward to the conversation.  The General was not going to be pleased that Daniel was showing bizarre symptoms, not that Jack was overly pleased about it himself.

After giving Hammond the low-down on what had happened at Daniel's apartment, he went to Carter's lab.

"Hey," he said as he entered the lab, the door was open as usual.  He saw Carter with her lower arms lost inside some piece of alien technology.   He looked around the lab quickly, wondering if all the lights on the units served some sort of purpose or if they were simply there for decoration.

"Colonel," Carter replied, carefully extracting her hand and wiping the grease on her shirt.

"You feeling alright Carter?" Jack asked bluntly.

"Yes Sir," she replied confused.

"No lapses in memory, no apathy?"

"No Sir, is anything alright?"

"Daniel called in, saying he didn't want to come in and now doesn't remember a thing."

"Really?" she asked.  Her eyebrows suddenly shot up in surprise.

"Oh yeah, Doc Fraiser's checking him over now.  I just thought I'd come and check you weren't missing bits of your day too."

"No lost time," she replied quietly.  She wondered if she should mention her flashbacks.

"What is it?" Jack asked, sensing that she was hiding something.

Inwardly she cursed O'Neill for being able to spot when she was keeping something back.

"I've had a couple of flashbacks."

"Flashbacks?" he asked with concern, his eyebrows creeping skywards.

"Just Alamagor shouting 'Later', that's it," she admitted.

"You sure?"

"Yes Sir," she replied, relieved that she had said something and also that O'Neill had accepted it and not suggested she was crazy, not yet at least.

"I think you should get Fraiser to check you out though," he offered.

"Okay," she sighed, knowing that Janet would probably overreact to this.  "I just need to finish up here first."

"Okay," he shrugged.  "I'm going to see if Daniel still remembers me."

"Yes Sir," Sam smiled.

Jack left her alone in her lab, she was just about to reach back inside the alien device when she suddenly stopped.  

O'Neill thought she was crazy, she had lost it and was going to tell Janet to lock her away.  She could not go to the infirmary, not if that would be the consequence.  She backed herself into the corner of the lab, tears stinging her eyes.

***~*~***

**So there was chapter 7, let me know what you thought.  Thanks!!!!**


	8. Chapter 8

**So I'm back with another chapter and to be honest I quite like this one!!**

**Even bigger thanks to Naliza than normal (if that's possible), not only did she beta this for me but she wrote a much more dramatic ending than my original one!!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!!!  This one's for you guys!!! :D**

***~*~***

Sam entered the infirmary, she saw O'Neill playing with something sharp.  With a sigh, she realised that one day he was going to come to grief, courtesy of his fascination with playing with anything that was not nailed down.

She could not see Daniel anywhere in the infirmary; therefore she assumed that Janet was subjecting him to more tests.  Jack heard her enter and turned in her direction.

"You got everything finished Major?"

"Yes Sir, where's Daniel?"

"Fraiser wants an MRI," Jack explained.

Sam nodded and commenced searching for Janet.  She found her in her office, looking lost in a sea of paper.

"Hey Janet," Sam said as she reached the Doctor's office.

"Sam, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine.  It's just that I've had a couple of auditory flashbacks.  I can't remember it happening on the planet though."

"What do you hear?" Janet asked with obvious concern as Sam dropped into the chair across from her friend.

"One of our captors shouting 'Later'," she shrugged.

"And that never happened?"

"I don't think so."

"Any memory loss?"

"No.  How's Daniel?" Sam asked, concerned about her friend.

"We don't know anything yet.  We'll have to wait and see what the MRI shows.  But let's worry about you for now."

"Janet, it's nothing.  I'm fine," Sam protested.

"Course it is," Janet offered but Sam could tell she was distracted.

*~*

Janet brought the MRI pictures up on the monitor with a sigh, there was nothing significant.  There were the odd errant pixels on both scans but that did not mean anything, there was an accepted margin of error with these scans.  Their experiences with Urgo had made her cautious but as the dots were in different positions on the scans, she did not read more into it.

She was unable to find anything to explain the symptoms Sam and Daniel were describing, toxicology; EEG and MRI had all showed nothing.  She had carried out every test short of exploratory brain surgery.  There was nothing more she could do, except keep a close eye on all of SG-1.

Jack, Daniel and Sam looked slightly surprised when Janet admitted she could not find anything wrong but they did not look especially pleased when she informed them that they were confined to the base for the foreseeable future.

"You just said there's nothing wrong with us," Daniel pleaded.

"There's nothing wrong with me," Jack objected.

"Daniel. I said that I couldn't find anything and considering both Sam and Daniel have shown unexplained symptoms it is probably a good idea to keep a close eye on all of SG-1."

Jack sighed, knowing the petite doctor had him beaten and waved a hand to indicate his reluctant acquiescence.

"Thank you Sir," Janet offered, acknowledging just how easily the Colonel had given in.  The lack of response from any of the assembled team spoke volumes to her, normally they would probably be fighting a restriction to stay on the base.

"Can we go?" Daniel asked.

"Sure, just come back if you notice anything out of the ordinary."

"Thanks Janet," Sam replied with a nod.

"Always a pleasure Doc," O'Neill said as he followed Daniel and Sam out of the infirmary.

"Pleasure's all mine," Janet muttered, her voice laced with sarcasm.

*~*

Jack O'Neill was bored and not just avoiding doing paper work bored but empty in-tray, organised closet, polished boots bored.  He did not even have the rest of the team to entertain him.

Sam was doing something technical and complicated that she had started to explain in great detail to get rid of him.  Daniel had been lost beneath a mountain of books and papers which he had refused to let Jack touch.  It was not his fault that he had almost doodled on a priceless ancient script and because of that tiny indiscretion he had been thrown out.  Teal'c was kelno'reeming so that destroyed any plan of hanging out with the Jaffa.

This had lead him to complete all his paper work, something that did not happen often, about as often as Jack tidied his closet.  He had found more odd socks than he would have thought possible, some of which had probably been in there so long that they could almost be classed as life forms in their own right.

He looked over at the clock, with a smile he realised that it was dinnertime, past it actually.  Knowing Carter and Daniel as he did, neither of them would have eaten as they were both too wrapped up in their current projects to notice the time.

He figured that he could persuade both of them to accompany him to the commissary and that would kill at least half an hour.

He found Carter in much the same was as he had before, playing with the device which was taking up much of the desk.  Her green uniform shirt was streaked with grease.

As Sam looked up she wiped her hands on her shirt again, streaking more grease on the already heavily stained material.

"Sir, you decided to help me out?" she asked humorously.

"I can't.  I've just had this shirt dry cleaned," he joked back, critically eyeing her appearance.

She looked down at her shirt and smiled, she had barely realised what she had been doing and so the state of her clothes was a surprise.

"Right, is there anything else, Sir?"

"Yes, I've come to escort you and Dr. Jackson to dinner," he offered suavely.

"I can't right now Sir, I'm really busy with this."

"Well, if I'm right about this…thing has been in storage for two months since SG-9 brought it back so I'm sure half an hour won't make any difference."

"I suppose you're right Sir," Sam agreed.  She was not actually making progress in figuring out just what she was dealing with and she had even less of an idea on how to make it work.

"Wow, that was easy.  Doohickey not playing fair?"

"Something like that Sir," Sam admitted with a small smile.

He looked at her suddenly intensely.  She was his 2IC, his friend and at that moment he knew that she was to blame for their capture on 739.  It was her fault that Daniel was showing unexplainable symptoms and that they were all stuck on base.  He blamed her for the recent deaths of two of SG-7, though he knew deep down that she had played no part in that mission.

The anger boiled violently inside him.  The emotion felt like it was taking control of all his senses.  He turned away from Carter, not able to look at her face for one second longer.

"Sir, are you alright?" came her concerned voice from behind him.

Her voice was the final straw, enough to finally push him over the edge.  He swung around; the back of his open hand impacted hard with Carter's face before she even saw it coming.  The frightening force of the blow caused her to stumble back a few feet.  

Shocked, a hand clutching her burning cheek, she tried to retreat away from him.  She was not sure what hurt more, her face or the fact that it was her commanding officer that had caused her that pain.

"Sir…what -"  She never got to finish the sentence.  With lighting speed, hatred edged all over his face, he crossed the small distance between them.  Realising the danger she was in Sam lifted her free arm in a feeble attempt to protect herself.  

"How dare you talk to me after everything you've done!" he snarled and connected his fist against the side of her jaw.  This time the blow knocked her off her feet.  Her head hit the desk with a sickening sound and she slowly collapsed to the floor.

Hunching down Jack looked at her unconscious form on the floor for a couple of minutes, a strange satisfied feeling consumed him upon seeing a blood pool form below her head.  

Shrugging slightly he stood and left the lab.  Whistling he closed the door behind him without looking back once.

***~*~***

**I know another cliff hanger, oops!!!!  I had promised myself that for one story at least I was going to leave Sam alone for the most part, I have a tendency to put her put her through the wringer a bit but then I had this thought and I couldn't let it go and it just got more and more dramatic as I was writing, so blame my ever temperamental muse!!!!**

**So let me know what you think of this chapter, as I said before I quite like it but I'm interested to hear what you think!!**


	9. Chapter 9

**So here I am with chapter 9, I finally got round to posting.  I've been crazy busy but I've finally got my dissertation completed and handed in!!  Yay!!!!!!!  So on the plus side I have slightly more time to write!!**

**I have to say a BIG thank you to those who've sent feedback.  Nikkibear624, you know that I'm now totally intrigued about what you reckon is going on here!!!!  I know it was a pretty evil direction to take the fic in but I was feeling angsty and that came through, there will be some more darkness before I finish but remember I'm a firm believer in the happy ending!!**

**I also have, as always, to thank Naliza for betaing this for me and being so supportive of my stories!!! :D**

**Enough of me and onto the story...**

***~*~***

Teal'c had just completed his kelno'reem.  He had been meditating in an attempt to try and understand what had happened to SG-1 on P2X-739 and their subsequent unexplainable symptoms.  Despite having extended his meditation time he still had no idea why his friends and fellow team members were behaving in such a strange way. 

Teal'c left his quarters and started for Major Carter's lab.  As he had not been captured and seemed to be unaffected by the time he had spent on the planet, Dr. Fraiser and General Hammond had both asked him to keep a close eye on the others.

He knew that Sam and Daniel would both be working and he also knew their working patterns as well as anyone else.  He was therefore slightly surprised to find Major Carter's lab door closed upon his arrival.  He was just about to assume that she had already gone to the commissary when he heard a weak groan coming from somewhere inside the lab.

*~*  
  


The first sensation Sam acknowledged was that she was cold.  After a few seconds she realized that it was because she was laying on a cold, bare concrete floor.  The next sensation she felt made her forget all about being cold - an intense pain was erupting throughout her head.  Her jaw as well as a spot at the back of her head, that currently felt twice the usual size, was throbbing and her right cheek stung.  Uttering a soft groan she repositioned her head slightly so that she was no longer resting on that one particularly painful spot.  It eased the pain a little bit but the movement seemed to increase the already substantial pressure inside her head. 

She forced her eyes open and tried to fix her blurred vision on something in a desperate bid to convince herself that she was stationary and not in fact on a ship in a gale.  She groaned slightly again as her stomach attempted a revolt, she bit back the nausea, actively forcing herself to keep from vomiting.

Sam twitched her feet, they took a couple of seconds to acknowledge that they were still a part of her nervous system and were indeed willing to follow her commands.  She took a few deep breaths, bringing the oxygen into her body that she knew she would need if she was going to start moving.  She was busy summoning the energy to move when she heard the door to her lab sliding open.  It was the most welcome sound she could possibly have heard at that moment since she was not looking forward to standing up and that way she would not have to.

Panic suddenly rushed through her.  Maybe it was _'him'_ coming back, back to continue his assault on her, but as she heard Teal'c's deep and even voice gently calling her name relief came washing over her.

As his familiar face appeared in her vision she could see concern in his dark eyes.  With the knowledge that Teal'c was nearby she allowed the approaching darkness to re-envelop her in its comforting arms.

Teal'c watched as Major Carter slipped into unconsciousness, her jaw was swollen, disfiguring her features and her right cheek was a bright red.  Blood had matted her blond hair and a small red puddle was forming on the floor beneath her head.

Teal'c hastened to the phone to summon a medical team.  On his way back to her side he noticed a red stain on the metal desktop, piecing together what had happened to his friend he realised that she had been attacked.  Cursing himself for not having realised it sooner he alerted the security forces, informing them of Major Carter's assault.

The medics rushed into the room.  Dr. Fraiser flew to her side immediately, calling her name out gently.  Janet looked concerned when she did not respond.  One of the nurses pressed a piece of clean white gauze against Sam's head.  Janet being cautious ordered one of the nurses to run back to the infirmary for a backboard and spinal collar.

Daniel had been on his way to ask Sam's opinion on one of his translations that had contained a reference to some technology that he did not understand.  He arrived at the same time as the nurse who returned with the spinal collar.  He rushed into the lab, his eyes widening as he watched Janet fit the collar, immediately assuming the worst.

"Janet," he asked, waveringly, unable to keep the panic out of his voice.

"It's just a precaution Daniel," Janet explained quickly, not having the time to reassure him further.

Daniel watched Janet work with a heavy heart.  It was alien to him seeing Sam hurt like that.  It tended to be his gig and it was normally Sam's job to patch him up.  Now she was laying there, appearing to be seriously hurt, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Once Sam was safely on the gurney Janet and the medics rushed past Daniel and Teal'c, leaving them alone in the lab.

"What happened?" Daniel asked, rediscovering his voice.

"I do not know.  I came to accompany Major Carter to the commissary and the door was closed.  I entered when I heard a sound from within.  Major Carter lost consciousness as I entered the room."

"Have you seen Jack?  He should know about this."

"I have not.  I shall attempt to locate him."

"I'll be in the infirmary," Daniel muttered.

Teal'c' inclined his head before leaving to find O'Neill.  With a shudder Daniel looked back into the lab, to the blood on the desk and the floor.  He turned away and quickly left the room, following the path that the medical personnel had travelled with Sam a few minutes before.

*~*

Teal'c checked both O'Neill's office and quarters, there was no sign of him in either room.  He eventually tracked him down in the commissary with a half-eaten cup of Jello in front of him.  Teal'c still did not understand the Tau'ri fascination with the coloured gelatine product.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said gravely as he sat across from him.

"What's up T?" he replied, appearing to be in a good mood.

"Major Carter had been attacked, she is in the infirmary."

"What?" Jack exploded, bringing looks from others in the commissary.  "She okay?" he asked, calming slightly.

"I do not know, she was unconscious when Dr. Fraiser took her to the infirmary.  Daniel Jackson is with her."

"We should get down there," Jack said, standing.

"Indeed."

*~*

Janet quickly checked her friend over once they were in the infirmary.  After a few minutes she was feeling a bit more reassured.  Although things were not what would be considered normal for Sam they were not dangerous either.

"I want head, c-spine and facial films and get a head CT," Janet ordered.  The left side of Sam's jaw was grossly swollen, so much so that Janet was concerned about a fracture.  She pulled away the dressing on Sam's head as the blood had begun to seep through the material.  Carefully she parted Sam's blood; she could see an inch long cut on her scalp that would probably need suturing.  She covered the cut with another clean dressing, the stitches could wait until Janet was sure that there was nothing more seriously wrong.

Upon Daniel's arrival at the infirmary Janet took time to fill him in on Sam's status.  Noticing the deep concern in his eyes she did her best to reassure him that all the tests were just a precaution, that she was just playing it safe.  After having finished her conversation with him the petite doctor went with Sam to x-ray, leaving Daniel alone with his thoughts.

Jack rushed in a few minutes later, he was obviously angry, his eyes flashing with rage.  Teal'c followed him in, his face betraying none of the anger he felt himself.

"Daniel?" Jack asked as he crossed to the slightly shell-shocked archaeologist.  

"Janet's taken Sam to x-ray, as a precaution.  She's still unconscious," Daniel reported.

"Right, any word on what happened?"

"No."

They waited patiently, or as patiently as Jack could ever wait in an infirmary.  Sam was still unconscious when Janet brought her back.  Janet reassured her waiting friends that the x-rays and CT scan had shown noting to cause concern.  Sam had nothing more serious than a concussion and it was by no means her first.  The three men looked relieved at that news.

Janet set to work suturing Sam's head, apologising to her friend for having to cut a small section of her hair to get to the laceration.  With her hair being slightly longer than usual at that moment, she would not have too many problems hiding the missing patch of hair.

Four neat stitches later, there was nothing to do except to keep a close eye on the Major and wait for her to regain consciousness.  Janet went to check on the rest of her patients, leaving Sam under the ever-watchful eyes of her team-mates, they would probably be able to notice a change in her before anyone else could.

When General Hammond entered the infirmary O'Neill stood slowly, his hands thrust deep in his pockets.

"How is she?" Hammond asked, with genuine concern.

"She's still unconscious but Doc Fraiser reckons that there isn't any permanent damage," Jack offered.

"That's good to hear," Hammond nodded.

"Any news on who did this?" Daniel asked.

"Security haven't come up with anything yet, they're still checking the security cameras."

"I don't get it, why anyone would do this to Carter," Jack sighed.

"No security breaches have been reported, right?  So it has to be one of the base personnel," Daniel reasoned.

Jack blinked slightly as he processed the information, it was not a pleasant thought and one he did not relish thinking about.  It was one thing for the Goa'uld to attack them but for a member of the SGC it seemed so much worse.

They shared looks, assimilating the information until Teal'c saw the slightest of movements from Sam.  She groaned quietly and opened her eyes.

"Sam, can you hear me?" Daniel asked gently.

"Yeah," Sam muttered weakly.

"I'll get the doc," Jack said quietly.  At hearing his voice Sam's eyes widened and her heart started racing.

"Major, do you remember what happened?" Hammond asked.

Sam took a few deep, calming breaths.  She knew that she was safe, her friends were around her and would not let _'him'_ hurt her again.

"We were just talking in my lab…then he just lashed out.  I tried to stop him but he hit me again.  I guess I my head must have hit the desk when I fell."

"Who hit you?" Hammond asked confused.

Before she could answer Janet appeared, flanked by Jack.  She quickly examined Sam before Hammond interrupted.

"Major?" he pressed.

Sam turned her head to look O'Neill square in the face, facing him brought a strange feeling to her stomach.  He stared back at her, his brow furrowed.  She could not see any malice, any anger contained in his features.  She suddenly realised that he did not understand why she was so reluctant to say anything, he did not seem to remember what had happened.

"You don't remember?" she asked quietly while still looking at her commanding officer.  Her voice was thick because of the significant swelling to her jaw, which was not broken but the intensity of the attack had knocked a couple of teeth loose.

"What?" Jack and Daniel said in unison.

"You did this Sir," she whispered but it was loud enough for everyone to hear.

Hammond's face tensed, his jaw clenched.  Without saying a word he stood and went to the infirmary door, he returned after a minute with two SF's in tow.

Jack was still standing at Sam's bedside, stumbling over his words as he attempted to defend his innocence.

Daniel, Janet and Teal'c were all shocked by Sam's admission.  Teal'c tensed, Daniel had placed himself as a barrier between Jack and Sam.

"Colonel O'Neill stand down," Hammond said shortly.  Turning to the SF's standing with their hands on their weapons he ordered, "Sergeant, take the Colonel into custody."  Noticing a slight hesitation in the younger man's stance Hammond warned, "Don't make this worse Jack."

"I'm sorry," Jack offered to Sam before leading the SF's out of the infirmary to a holding room.

***~*~***

**So, another chapter done.  I will post chapter 10 as soon as possible.**

**Thanks for reading and as always, I'd love some feedback!!! :D**


	10. Chapter 10

**So, here's chapter 10, thanks for all the support I've received for this story, it's really keeping me motivated!!!**

**Thanks to Naliza for being the best beta I could ask for!! :D**

**Don't have anything else to say right now so I'm going to get on with the story!!**

***~*~***

"Jack really hit you?" Daniel asked, dropping heavily in the chair by Sam's bed.

"I didn't even see it coming, we were just talking.  He turned away suddenly, I asked if he was alright.  He just hit me, he said something like 'How dare I talk to him after everything I've done', I don't understand why and then he just hit me," she slowly mumbled with a slight laugh as she realised the absurdity of what had happened.  The moment of humour was lost as a flash of pain radiated through her jaw.

"Is it possible that Jack really doesn't remember, like what happened to me this morning," Daniel suggested.

"It's a possibility I suppose but it's a completely different manifestation."

"Look into it Doctor," Hammond ordered.

"Yes Sir.  Sam needs to rest now," Janet announced.

Sam rolled her eyes slightly at Janet's tone.  She said goodbye to her friends as they left the room.

"So how are you feeling, really?" Janet asked, taking the opportunity to sit down at her friend's side.

"Headache and did I knock a couple of teeth loose?" Sam asked, gently exploring the interior of her mouth with her tongue.

"Yeah, you might have to watch what you eat for a while.  That must have been quite a punch," Janet said, trying to be subtle.

"I don't get it Janet, I don't understand why he did it.  We were joking around, he was totally normal but then he suddenly hit me.  He was so angry, I've never seen him like that."

"That has to be strange."

"You have no idea.  There has to be something wrong with him Janet," Sam implored.  She could not imagine that he would ever hit her like that unless there was something wrong with him.

"Okay, I'm going to check him out.  You know the deal with head injuries by now."

"Oh yeah," Sam agreed.

"Get comfortable.  I'll let you know if I find anything," Janet said, knowing that Sam would want to be kept informed, she deserved to know as well.

"Thanks Janet," Sam replied warmly.  She lay back on the bed, thankful that her stomach had calmed enough so that she did not have to consciously fight the nausea.  Jack really could pack a punch, she realised, her head was still throbbing and her mouth was pretty sore.  She accepted the painkillers that the nurse offered her and tried to relax.

*~*

"I do not understand why O'Neill would attack Major Carter in such a way."  
"Me neither, he would never hurt Sam like that, not on purpose," Daniel agreed, shaking his head.

"Do you believe that O'Neill has been affected by your time on P2X-739?"

"I don't know Teal'c but I almost hope so."

"What will happen to O'Neill if Dr. Fraiser can not find anything physically wrong with him?"

"I don't know but it's a serious offence," Daniel offered.  He did not pretend to know much about the intricacies of the military justice system but he did know that there was a good chance that Jack would end up being court-martialed, jail time and a dishonourable discharge if found guilty.

*~*

Jack allowed the SF's to escort him to the holding room without trying to resist or even make any attempted wisecracks.  Hr passively sat down on a bench in the small holding room and stared at the bare concrete wall.  Sam was totally sure that he had hurt her, he could see it in her face.  The problem was that he had absolutely no recollection of it ever happening and he knew that it was not something he would forget that easily.  The only thing that he could remember was going to her lab to try and get her to come to dinner, she had refused and so he had gone to the commissary alone.  That was where Teal'c had told him later on about the attack.

He gazed up from the point on the wall he had been focusing on as he heard the door lock disengage.  Janet entered the room, slightly nervous with a SF towering above her, his right hand resting on the holster on his hip.

"I need to check you over Sir, okay?"

"Sure, I'm not gonna bite," Jack muttered flatly.

"Okay, we'll see if we can find out what's going on," Janet said kindly.  She had rarely seen O'Neill looking so passive and defeated.  Since Sam had regained consciousness she had not heard one wisecrack or sarcastic comment from him.  Despite the obvious shock on his face she was only too aware of the fact that he could still be capable of snapping unexpectedly.

"Is Sam okay? Did she say anything more?"  The rare use of her first name did not go unnoticed by Janet

"She's fine.  She's got a pretty nasty concussion but as I said before, no permanent damage."

Jack allowed her to check him over.  He also allowed the heavily armed SF's to escort him to the CT scanner and back to his cell once Janet had reported that she could find nothing wrong with him.

It was the last thing that any of them wanted to hear.  Though Janet was unable to say that there was definitely nothing wrong with Daniel, Sam or himself for that matter.

*~*

Sam was worried about the Colonel since she had never seen him so angry as he had been in her lab.  

There had been times in the past when he had lost his temper, when the anger had been right on the surface, but in everyone of those situations there had been a reason for that anger, it had been justified in some way.  She had never seen him lash out in that way with absolutely no provocation.  Even on K'Tau, when he had almost killed the man who had caused the deaths of two SGC officers, she had not even seen that type of look on his face.  

She looked up when Janet sat down next to her, interrupting her musings.

"How are you feeling?  Headache any better?"

"Yeah, I guess.  How's Colonel O'Neill?"

"The guy viciously attacks you and you're asking how _he _is?" she asked incredulously.

"Janet, you know that he wouldn't hurt me on purpose."

"I know but I can't find anything wrong him," Janet admitted, unsure why she felt just that guilty about that.  The brutality of the attack on her friend had shocked her and knowing the identity of the perpetrator had made it much worse.

"So what now?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, Sam." 

*~*

General Hammond was in his office, pondering the same question.  The security tapes from Major Carter's lab had been brought to him, he was waiting for Daniel and Teal'c to arrive before he started watching them.  He had been given a rundown on what it showed, apparently it confirmed O'Neill's guilt.  Teal'c and Daniel arrived a few minutes later, Hammond noticed that Daniel was uncharacteristically quiet, not that he could blame him for that.

They all sat in silence as they watched the tape.  It was just as Sam had described it.  They could see on the screen how the Colonel and she were talking, joking about her work.  Daniel winced as Jack viciously backhanded Sam.  He looked away when, despite Sam's attempts at self-defence, Jack's lightening blow knocked her to the floor.  What chilled Hammond was Jack's casual treatment of the unconscious Major, kneeling beside her for a few seconds before shrugging the event off like it was nothing, something inconsequential.

*~*

The worst thing about having a concussion, Sam decided, was that she was not able to sleep long before she was woken by one of the medical staff making sure she was not displaying any worrying symptoms.  She just managed to settle down when one of nurses came over and shone a penlight in her eyes.

Once the nurse had departed Sam shuffled awkwardly in the bed, she was finding it difficult to get comfortable.  Her eyes darted around the infirmary, her eyes straining to see in the dimmed lights, trying to locate the sound that had caught her attention.  She realised what the noise was after a few seconds, two of the nurses were whispering in the corner of the infirmary.  Sam could not make out what they were saying but she had no doubt that they were talking about her.  She knew right away that they were planning her transfer out of the SGC, they were trying to get rid of her.

Sam slowly pulled back the covers and climbed out of bed.  As she tried to straighten herself she had no choice but to grip the rails of the bed as the world decided to start spinning around her.  She grabbed her BDU pants and black t-shirt from under the bed.  Her need to get away was great, she had to get away at all cost.  She could not let them transfer her off the base, she enjoyed her work at the SGC too much.  Despite her sudden overwhelming desire she did not fancy running around in her current attire, a backless gown.  Balling the clothes up in front of her, she slipped out of the infirmary without the nurses even realising that she had left her bed.

She quickly changed in the small supply room adjacent to the infirmary. Once changed she moved through the halls quickly, or as quickly as she could with her head throbbing in unison with her rapid heart beat.

She sought out somewhere she felt safe, somewhere that she could hide from the people who were trying to get rid of her.  That turned out to be a quiet spot on the surface above the base.  It was a small clearing where only trees, and not a trace of anything even remotely military, could be seen.  It was the same place she visited in the past when she needed to see the sky after spending too many hours underground.

Sitting on a fallen log, she pulled her knees to her chest, listening intently for any sound of possible approaching personnel coming to force her off the base.  She shivered in the cold air, her thin t-shirt offered no protection against the elements.  Sitting in the dark, she waited for the inevitable heavy footfalls to approach.

*~*

The nurse on call went to check on Major Carter, she quietly pulled back the curtain and was surprised to find the bed empty.  She swore under her breath.  Hoping that she had not gone far, she started to search for her.

They could find no sign of her in any of the rooms of the infirmary.  Widening the search to the commissary and Carter's lab and quarters also turned up nothing.  On a whim the young nurse tried Dr. Jackson's lab, she was slightly surprised to find him still working.

"Dr Jackson."

"Is everything okay?" Daniel asked quickly.

"Have you seen Major Carter?"

"You mean she's not in the infirmary?"

"Uh no.  I just thought she may have come here."

"No, I haven't seen her.  Although there is a few places she could have gone to hide.  I'll check them out for you."

"Thank you Dr. Jackson," the nurse sad, smiling sweetly at him.

Daniel knew what her favourite spot was and so decided to go there first.  He had found her there on more than one occasion during the three months Jack was stuck off world on Edora.  None of the guards had seen her but the front door was not the only way out of the mountain.  Daniel heard Sam before he saw her, her panicked breathing and shuffling feet announced her location.

"Sam, is that you?" he called out, not wanting to surprise her.  Stepping into the clearing he saw her, sitting hunched up on a log, her bare arms wrapped around her knees.

"I don't want to go, Daniel," she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Go where, back to the infirmary?"

"I don't want to leave.  Don't make me leave."

"Sam, I don't understand."

"I know they're coming to throw me off the base."

"You're not making any sense.  Nobody is coming, it's just me.  You're not being thrown off the base," Daniel reassured her in a calming voice.

"Don't lie to me Daniel," she half shouted.

"I'm not lying, I wouldn't lie to you."

"Don't treat me like a child," she yelled.

Daniel's eyes widened in shock as Sam stood and span around, a 9mm pistol levelled at his chest.

***~*~***

**So, that was chapter 10, let me know what you thought!!**

**I hope to get another chapter posted before my finals start but there are no guarantees and there are definitely no promises on me finishing chapter 12 before uni finishes.  Feedback motivates me though, but unfortunately most of my motivation has to go into revision right now!!  Shame I know!! ;) **


	11. Chapter 11

**So, here's chapter 11, I've managed to get it all sorted for posting before my exams. The chances of chapter 12 making a appearance in the next couple of weeks are slim to none but I promise that as soon as my exams are over then I will be able to spend more time writing!!**

**I meant to say this last chapter but Brina, I have no idea how long this story will be in the end, I don't even know how it's going to end yet!!**

**Thanks to Naliza, without her this story would be full of bad grammar!!**

* * *

"Sam, put the gun down," Daniel pleaded. He was trying to keep the panic from his voice; the problem was that he was not sure whether he was even remotely successful.

"No, I'm not going," she shouted, tears were falling unchecked from her eyes.

"Sam, you don't have to go anywhere you don't want to."

"They'll make me," she called, her voice softening slightly.

"Sam, do you trust me?"

"I don't know Daniel, I don't know who to trust."

"You can trust me. I won't let anyone hurt you."

"He hurt me."

"Jack?"

Sam simply nodded. She spun suddenly as she heard a noise behind her, waving the gun wildly around as she tried to find the source of the sound. The gun settled back on Daniel as a small animal ran through the edge of the clearing.

"Jack's locked up, he can't hurt you now. I promise that I won't let anyone hurt you or take you anywhere you don't want to go."

"You promise?" she asked, her voice weak.

"I promise, just put the gun down okay?"

"Okay," she whispered. She let her arm fall to her side. With a deep sigh of relief Daniel took a few tentative steps towards her. He stopped suddenly as Sam's arm raised again; she looked closely at the gun in her hand.

"Sam?" Daniel asked, confused over her latest action. Not that her earlier behaviour was easily explainable.

"Daniel," Sam said, her voice wavering.

"Why don't you put the gun down?"

Sliding the safety catch on, Sam dropped the gun as though it had burned her. Daniel approached her as she sank down onto a log and wrapped her arms around her body. He knelt in front of her and seeing that she was shivering he slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"What's wrong with me Daniel?" she whispered tearfully as she pulled the warm material of Daniel's jacket around her.

"It's okay Sam, it's going to be okay," he reassured her, pulling her gently into a comforting hug.

After a few minutes Daniel stood, pulled Sam up, and escorted her back into the base. Not wanting to upset her further he took her straight to her quarters. She looked uneasily at all those who passed them in the halls but with Daniel at her side she felt safe enough to continue walking.

As soon as Sam was in her quarters she started to feel safer, the familiar surroundings assisted to comfort and calm her down. She sat on the small bed and drew her knees up to her chest, settling her head on her knees.

Daniel called Janet at home, he quickly explained what had happened and she promised to be there as soon as she could. Once he had finished on the phone he perched on the end of the bed, not wanting to crowd Sam.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"You want to tell me why you had a gun."

"Because…" she trailed off uncertainly.

"You don't have to go anywhere. I won't let anyone make you do anything you don't want to, you know that."

"I don't understand what's going on. I just keep getting these feelings. I just know someone is coming after me, that they want me off the base. I remember leaving the infirmary, getting the gun, everything. I remember doing it but I couldn't stop myself. I had no control, it was like when…" she whispered, trailing off tearfully.

Daniel immediately knew what she was alluding to; her experiences with Jolinar had really hit her hard at the time.

"It's okay Sam, we're going to work all this out. I promise." as he spoke, Daniel immediately tensed. He hoped that he was not making a promise that he would not be able to keep.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Janet is on her way in now."

"I'm sorry Daniel."

"What for?"

"For pointing that gun at you, for all of this."

"It's okay, don't worry about it."

Daniel gently covered Sam with a blanket as she laid down on the bed. Her rapid breathing slowed as she relaxed and fell asleep. He stood and watched her sleep until a soft knock on the door disturbed the quiet, Sam stirred slightly but stayed asleep.

He quietly slipped out of the room, greeting Janet who had obviously rushed in from home.

"I'm sorry about this Janet."

"It's okay," she said, dismissing it with a shake of the head. "How's Sam?"

"She's asleep. She kept saying that she didn't want to go and that people were coming to throw her off the base. She wasn't making much sense really."

"And now?" Janet prompted.

"Apparently she had no control over what she was doing. I think that scared her most, she compared it to Jolinar."

"Right," Janet replied with a sigh. She could not even begin to understand just how difficult it would be to have no control over your actions in that way. She shuddered slightly at the very thought of it.

"This has something to do with Jack, right?"

"I don't really know but it looks that way."

"So that means there's probably something wrong with me then too," Daniel reasoned with a shrug.

"And I thought you were an optimist," she joked.

"Jack's rubbed off on me," Daniel replied with the ghost of a smile on his lips.

"Look Daniel, why don't you get some sleep and I'll look after Sam."

"I want to make sure she's okay first," he replied, stifling a yawn.

"Let me rephrase that. Go get some sleep," Janet iterated, leaving no room for argument.

"Fine but promise me you'll let me know what's happening."

"Of course."

Daniel walked slowly to his quarters; he could not get the image of Sam looking so afraid out of his head. He had never seen her like that, looking so scared, not even when she was facing certain death and Goa'uld system lords. Something was wrong with them and he could feel the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach coming back.

Janet quietly slipped into Sam's room. As much as she wanted to let her sleep she needed to examine her and as soon as possible. It was to ensure that her strange behaviour was not a result of her head injury.

She called out her friend's name before shaking her shoulder gently. Sam awoke with a start, her eyes darting around the room.

"Easy Sam, it's only me," Janet soothed.

"Janet?" Sam questioned, as though the doctor's identity was in question.

"Yeah it's me. How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess. I think I scared Daniel and I even scared myself," she whispered.

Janet ran the normal tests, pupil reaction, blood pressure and pulse. Her pulse and blood pressure were the only ones that were slightly above normal_,_ but considering the stressful situations that she had found herself in recently it was not surprising.

"Janet?"

"Yeah."

"Please tell me you know what's wrong with me and Colonel O'Neill."

"I can't, not right now, but we'll work this out. So what happened tonight?"

Sam explained in as much detail as she could. She cringed as she recalled how she had pulled the gun on Daniel. She recounted the overwhelming feelings of paranoia and the massive need to get away from the people that she was so sure were going to throw her off the base.

Janet sat and listened, trying to assimilate what she was hearing. The more she heard, the more she became convinced that Sam's experience was related to Jack's outburst and probably Daniel's earlier episode.

"Okay," she nodded once Sam had finished. "Do you want to stay here or come to the infirmary? It's totally your decision," Janet reassured her.

"Here," Sam replied simply.

"Okay, you go back to sleep and I'll come back to check on you soon."

And you're going to put a guard outside, right?"

"I'm sorry, you know I have to," Janet sighed.

"I know," Sam agreed, slightly dejected.

"Call if you need anything."

"Thanks Janet."

* * *

Janet leant back heavily in her office chair and sighed deeply. She knew that people were looking up to her to find out what was going on. She needed to find out why two members of SG-1 had shown violent tendencies and were now under armed guard. 

She brought up Sam's CT scan again, trying to see something that she had missed the first, second and third time around. There was still nothing beside the tiny black spot. With another sigh, she brought up the second scan also, looking for any differences between the two. There was nothing, they were identical, right down to the tiny black spot. After doing a double take she sat up straight, looking closely at the scan. She tapped a few keys and brought the two scans up side by side. They appeared to be in the exact same place and that was significant.

Janet had initially put it down to an errant pixel, which were within the accepted margin of error. The problem was that if it was an error then the spots should not be in the same place. She checked Daniel's scans and found the same thing but the spots were in a different area of the brain to Sam's.

This has to mean something, at least it warranted further research. Feeling slightly more confident she stood and went in search of Daniel, deciding to let Sam sleep for the time being. She was seriously hoping that they would be able to work out what was going on.

Daniel was sitting in his quarters, trying and failing to sleep. The soft knock broke through his musings.

"Come in," he called.

"Daniel, how are you feeling?" Janet asked.

"I'm fine," he replied with a shrug. Janet knew that it was not an 'I say I'm fine but I actually feel awful' fine. "How's Sam?"

"She's resting. Look Daniel, I think I've found something but I need to run some more tests."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Daniel?"

"Maybe I don't want to go through _more _of your tests. Maybe I don't want to stay in here. What if I do what I want for a change, hey?"

"Daniel, are you okay?" Janet asked with concern at his sudden change.

"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be fine? I'm just thinking of myself for a change," he explained with a large smile on his face.

"Daniel, what are you talking about."

"I'm talking about doing what I want, when I want. And right now, I want to do this," Daniel announced confidently.

Janet was still trying to make sense of the list of Daniel's unusual behaviours when she suddenly realised she had another one to add to the already long list - the fact that Daniel was currently kissing her.

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**I know, another cliff hanger to leave you on. And who knew that I was a Daniel/Janet shipper?? I thought that Daniel deserved a cliff hanger moment and I couldn't resist this!!**

**You know me, I love that feedback stuff!!! :)**

**Thanks to all those who wished me luck with the exams, I'm sure I'm going to need it!!**

**Take care and thank you for reading!!! :D**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi everybody #In best Dr Nick from the Simpsons voice#**

**The Pro Plus has gone into a drawer, that's right, exams are over…blissful amounts of free time and sleep patterns that don't resemble an insomniac's are mine!! Anyway, I can now actually spend more than ten minutes at a time writing so I can get some more chapters done!!**

**So, a big thank you to Naliza, who once again offered her wonderful betaing skills!!! **

**Stargate isn't mine, neither are the characters, I'm just messing with their heads for a little while and will do my level best to put them back together before I send them back out into the world (or should that be galaxy), they could be considered dangerous in their current states!! ;-D**

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Janet froze for a moment. She was not sure what to make of Daniel kissing her and especially the fact that it was definitely not a chaste peck on the cheek.

Once Janet got her head around what was happening, or as close to it as was possible, she pulled away from Daniel, put her hands on his chest and pushed him away slightly.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" she asked, standing and edging towards the door.

"What I've wanted to do for a long time," he explained as though it was a massive relief.

"Daniel, this isn't you," Janet stressed.

"Oh yes it is. This is very much me, just a different me."

He stood and started to approach Janet, she nervously reached for the door handle but Daniel's superior reflexes blocked her before she could open the door. He leaned in to try and kiss her again.

"Sorry Daniel," she apologised. Before he could react she brought up her knee, right into his groin. He immediately dropped to the floor, groaning quietly as he curled himself up. Janet ran out into the corridor, shutting the door behind her. She called for a security team and while she waited she leant back against the wall, trying to catch her breath.

When the SF's arrived Janet once again appeared to be the picture of professionalism. She briefly explained the situation but tactfully left out Daniel's amorous actions. She did not particularly want the entire base knowing what had happened, especially since she would swear that some of the SF's were almost as big gossips as the nurses - almost but not quite.

With sentries posted she went to Hammond's office to bring him up to date with the latest developments. With everything that had happened she had almost forgotten about what she had learned only recently.

"Sir, there's been a change with Doctor Jackson," she said as she sat down across from Hammond.

"What kind of change?" Hammond asked, his attention immediately drawn away from the less than thrilling budget report he was working on.

"I was talking to him when he suddenly changed, almost like I was talking to a different person. It was Daniel but at the same time it wasn't."

"Was he violent in any way?" Hammond asked with genuine concern.

"No, not really."

"Doctor?"

"He…he kissed me Sir."

Hammond paused, his mouth open slightly as he realised just what Janet had said, his previously planned sentence died on his lips.

"Right, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Sir, thank you."

"And Doctor Jackson?"

"No lasting damage," Janet replied sheepishly. As Hammond raised his eyebrows she felt compelled to continue. "He came towards me again so I…kneed him in the groin."

As a reflex Hammond winced although he realised that Janet had been totally justified in her actions. Despite the fact that Daniel could still be pegged as a geeky archaeologist he was much stronger than the petite doctor.

He had also seen the damage O'Neill had done to Carter, heard how she had pulled a gun on Daniel, both things he would not have thought possible yesterday. And now Dr Jackson was making advances towards his CMO, this was a seriously messed up situation he realised with a sigh.

"Any news on what's causing this?"

"Possibly Sir. I've found small black spots on all of their CAT scans. They seem to be in slightly different areas of the brain, which is probably why I didn't pick up on it before now. I want to run some more tests which is why I went to see Daniel," she explained. Hammond realised the Doctor's dilemma; all three members of SG-1 had displayed some violent or otherwise disturbing behaviour and were now under armed guard.

"Whoever you think is best Doctor," Hammond gave his permission, allowing her the choice of which member of SG-1 to approach for further testing. Janet sighed slightly as she pondered her options since none were particularly appealing.

"I suppose Doctor Jackson then. Overall he has been the least violent and also has had the most recent 'episode' that we're aware of."

"Make sure you have a guard with you at all times. Or if you'd rather, I'm sure Doctor Warner will be able to take over the care of SG-1."

"It's fine Sir, I'd like to follow this through."

"Okay, keep me apprised."

"Yes Sir." Janet stood and left the office. She only stopped for a cup of coffee before going to Daniel's quarters, she definitely needed caffeine if she was going to face him.

Two guards were standing stiffly by the door when she arrived, on seeing her one of them swiped a pass card through the reader and the door lock clicked open. He opened the door slightly and entered, seeing that Daniel was laying curled up on the bed, he waved the doctor in.

"Daniel?" she called, not wanting to approach him.

He rolled over, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"What'd I do?" he asked with a sigh, resigned to the fact that something bad had happened. "And who…" he trailed off, not knowing how to phrase the question politely.

"Yeah, that would be me," Janet admitted.

"You?" he asked, taken aback. "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?"

"No. You um…you kissed me," Janet admitted with definite reluctance in her voice.

She sensed a reaction from the guard behind her and grimaced as she realised that particular titbit of information would be around the base within an hour. Daniel looked shocked and decidedly embarrassed at the news.

"Janet, I'm so sorry. I don't remember anything. I remember talking to you, then the next thing I found myself on the floor, feeling…sore."

"It's okay Daniel, I know it wasn't you," she shuddered slightly as she recalled what he had said right before he kissed her. She wanted to talk to him about it but she was not willing to risk any more embarrassment for either of them right now.

"You said something about having a theory right? I do remember that much."

Yeah, I want to run some further tests."

"Of course, whatever you need. Just as long as this all stops."

"Hopefully. Why don't we get started."

Daniel stood, albeit stiffly and followed Janet and the SF out of the room. They walked to the infirmary, Daniel flanked by the guards, meaning that if for some strange reason there was still someone on the base who did not know that SG-1 were currently loosing it, beating each other up and constantly under armed guard, they would now.

Janet had barely begun to examine Daniel when one of the nurses called her away.

"Doctor, you're needed down in the holding cells."

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure, apparently it's something to do with Colonel O'Neill."

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**I know it's slightly shorter than normal and has absolutely no Sam or Jack but I promise, or at least fully intend to, write a nice long chapter with lots of Sam and Jack to make up for it, expect a nice uncomfortable meeting!! **

**So please review and let me know what you think!! **


	13. Chapter 13

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So, finally I've managed to get chapter 13 ready, just when one area of real life gets sorted another gets messed up. Life can annoying that way!!**

**Thanks to those who sent feedback, it's always very much appreciated! Mara Jade, I hope this is uncomfortable and USTy (I don't think that it a word but hey!) enough for you!!! ****Thanks also to Naliza, my wonderful beta reader and friend!!**

**So on with the story…are sitting comfortably? Then I will begin…**

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Janet rushed down to the holding room after ordering one of the other doctors to complete the examination of Daniel. She entered the small cell and saw O'Neill standing with his back to her. He span round as he head her enter.

"What are you doing here?" he yelled.

"I'm just here to make sure you're alright," Janet replied, trying to keep her voice level.

"Alright? How can I be alright stuck in this hole? Just get me out of here. Don't you understand what's happening?" he shouted.

"Why don't you explain it to me?" Janet tried.

"I can't do that, you can't know, you won't understand."

"I can't understand unless you explain it to me," she said trying to reason with him. It was however becoming clear that he was not open to any reasoning in the state he was in.

"You can't. So get out, just get out of here. Just get out now."

"I can't do that Colonel, not until you calm down. I can't leave you in this condition."

Suddenly he ran towards her, anger flashing in his eyes and his jaw set firmly. The guard standing at Janet's side reacted and put himself between the Doctor and the approaching form of Jack. With an impressive tackle the guard brought O'Neill to the floor.

At first O'Neill struggled against the man who was pinning him to the floor but then he stopped moving and froze. Sensing that O'Neill had stopped his struggle the guard moved and pulled him roughly to his feet, but he was ever mindful of the fact that the man he was restraining was a superior officer.

Janet could see O'Neill's eyes darting around he room, trying to ascertain what had happened, they then fixed on her and offered a silent plea for help. The change in his eyes was remarkable, a few seconds before they had contained more anger than Janet would have thought possible and now they contained fear and confusion.

"Colonel?" she asked uncertainly.

"Doc, what just happened?" he queried, his voice uncharacteristically quiet and lacking inflection.

"It's okay Sir. Nothing really. You didn't hurt anyone," she reassured him.

"Why is this happening? Is someone trying to get their kicks by messing with out heads?" he asked with a short, humourless laugh.

"I don't know Sir but I may have a lead on what's causing this. Doctor Jackson has agreed to undergo some tests."

"Anything I can do?"

"I'll let you know Sir. So what do you remember?"

"Nothing. I don't remember anything at all. One minute I was sitting there, the next, I'm on the floor with my new best friend," Jack explained, indicating the SF who still had his hands held firmly behind his back.

"I think you can let the Colonel go now Airman," Janet advised.

The airman holding Jack looked dubiously at both Janet and O'Neill before deferring to the doctor and releasing O'Neill's arms. Jack stretched out and went back to sit on the bed. It was obvious that the airman did not trust O'Neill as his hand rested against his pistol which was sitting in the unfastened holster on his hip. Janet could not blame the man for being cautious, a minute before he had been forced to tackle O'Neill as he made a move to attack her.

"Sir, I'd better get back to the infirmary. Is there anything before I go?"

"Can I see Carter?"

"Colonel?"

"I want to speak to Carter. I need to talk to her."

"I don't know if that's a good idea Sir."

"Look, I don't care if I'm in handcuffs and surrounded by every SF on the base but please, let me talk to her."

"It's not that, I don't know if she's up to visitors right now."

"Why, what happened?"

"You know I can't tell you that Sir."

"Please," he implored.

"She pulled a gun on Daniel. She left the infirmary last night and Daniel tracked her down. She thought that people were going to throw her off the base," Janet explained with a sigh.

"Seriously?"

"Yes Sir."

"Are they both alright?"

"Daniel's fine. Sam's a bit more shaken up, she remembers what happened unlike Daniel and yourself."

"Wait a sec, why does Carter remember and me and Daniel are enjoying blissful ignorance of our homicidal tendencies or in Daniel's case, laziness tendencies."

"I don't know, it could be due to the head injury she sustained," Janet suggested. It was the only variable that she could suggest as being the cause of the difference.

"Thanks for reminding me of that by the way," Jack added with some humour.

"I need to go and check on Sam, I'll talk to her then."

"Thanks Doc," he replied sincerely.

Janet left the cell, she pulled one of the guards aside, she needed more information about what had just happened.

"What happened before I arrived?"

"I'm not really sure Ma'am, he started shouting so I went into the cell. I tried to get him to calm down but he wasn't listening to anything I said."

"What was he saying, specifically?"

"That it was their fault and he had to go back. And he was saying something about 'her', that he was going to make her pay but he didn't say who she was or what she had done wrong."

Janet was immediately on edge, she figured that 'her' was probably Sam and so was less eager for Sam to see O'Neill if he had a vendetta against her. Even if it was only in his 'altered' state.

After giving the guards orders to watch O'Neill closely and to let her know if there was any change. She went to Sam's quarters and found her sitting on the bed, looking bored.

"Hey Sam, how are you feeling?"

"Fine, well bored actually."

"You sure?"

"Yes Janet, I feel fine. Slightly embarrassed, a bit shaken with a bit of a headache but I'm going out of my mind being stuck in here."

"And you want to go and do some work," Janet finished, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah. Look I feel fine, no blurred vision, confusion or tiredness. There can be a guard there the whole time."

"Let me check you over and then we'll see. And, um, Colonel O'Neill wants to talk to you."

"Really?"

"He wanted me to ask you but you don't have to see him if you don't want to."

"I know but I want to."

"Do you want me there?"

"No, I need to do this on my own or on my own surrounded by heavily armed guards."

"Okay, if you're sure."

"I am, thanks Janet."

"Sure," came Janet's less than convinced reply. She was unsure about how good an idea it was for Sam to see Colonel O'Neill and the fact that they were both violent was only one of the things bothering her.

Janet could find nothing wrong with Sam, there did not appear to be any lasting effects from her injuries. Janet agreed to let her do some work after she had seen Colonel O'Neill, providing she had an escort and did not over exert herself. Janet left Sam to shower and change while she informed the guard of the plan.

* * *

The guard swiped his card through the reader again and held the door open for Sam. She took a deep breath before entering the room. Jack was sitting on the bed, playing with a yo-yo, he had obviously badgered the guards until they had given in and fetched the toy from his office.

Sam smiled slightly as he tried to untangle the string, he was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he had not noticed his visitor. It was only when she cleared her throat slightly that he looked up. He quickly put down the yo-yo, seemingly embarrassed over what he was doing to pass the time.

"Colonel. How are you?"

"Fine, but then again I wasn't beaten up in the last 24 hours."

"It's nothing, Janet cleared me and everything."

"Look Carter, there is a reason why I asked to talk to you."

"Yes Sir."

"Why don't you sit down," he said, in an obvious bid to stall.

"Okay," Sam agreed, perching on the end of the bed.

"I'm so sorry Carter. For what I did, what I said," he offered.

"You remember?" she questioned.

"No but I've been told. I've been filled in on all the gory details."

"Right."

Sam had no idea where he was going with this. She did not really understand why she had agreed to see him. It had brought back the memories of when he attacked her in her lab. She knew that she would have to do this sooner or later, she could not exactly avoid him forever. She didn't want to have to avoid him forever.

"You have to know that I'd never hurt you, not like that."

Sam did not say anything, she nervously looked at her hands. Jack continued when he realised that she was not planning to say anything.

"I hate the fact that I hurt you like that and that I just left you. I could have killed you and I don't know what I would have done then."

"But you didn't kill me. I'm okay and I know that it wasn't you. You were so angry, I have never seen you like that, not for any reason and that's how I know," Sam explained.

"So we're okay?"

"Yes Sir. I don't blame you, just like Daniel doesn't blame me for almost shooting him and I'm pretty sure that Janet doesn't blame Daniel for kissing her." Despite the fact that she did not blame him for what he did, not when he was like this anyway, she remembered all too well the fact that seemed to enjoy hitting her, causing her that pain. She could not forget that and was reminded of it when she looked at him. However, she felt that she could not tell him this, he was having a hard time dealing with this as it was, she did not want to make it worse for him.

"What?" Jack asked, his eyes widening. That piece of information had passed him by. "Daniel 'ladies-man' Jackson strikes again," he said, smiling broadly.

"I probably shouldn't have said that," Sam muttered, chastising herself. She knew that both Daniel and Janet would be in for some ribbing now. "Anyway, my point is there's something wrong with us which means we're not acting ourselves. So yes Sir, we're okay."

"Good," Jack said, smiling broadly again.

"I'll um, leave you to it Sir," Sam offered, pointing to the yo-yo half-hidden behind his back.

"I'm training, yo-yo's were originally weapons y'know?" he said in his defence. His eyes alive with laughter.

"Yes Sir," she agreed, smiling back at him. A barely concealed laugh in her voice.

Sam turned to leave, the guard on her heels. As she reached the door she turned back when he called out to her.

"I'm still sorry about this."

Sam smiled slightly and nodded before she left the room, leaving Jack to his yo-yo which had managed to get more tangled in the short time it had been on the bed.

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Sam was in her lab, working on her laptop. The work she was doing was not in the least bit urgent but the sense of normality that was associated with it was calming to her. That was a welcome change to the usual hypersensitive feeling that she had been aware of the past few hours.

The guard watching her, however was bored. He had no chance of understanding anything Sam was doing and had long since stopped paying any attention to her activities.

And as such, he did not notice when Carter began to focus solely on the computer screen. For almost an hour she did not detract her gaze from the computer, her fingers were flying across the keys.

It was only when the klaxons began to sound that the guard turned to look at Carter. After a few seconds the klaxons shut off, corresponding with the base being plunged into pitch darkness.

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**So there was chapter 13, feedback? Please…pretty please with sugar on. :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Good morning campers. Here's chapter 14.**

**Thanks to Naliza, my wonderful beta.**

**And thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. You guys always make me smile!! Computer chocolate for all!!**

**SG-1 and co. aren't mine but my birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. I've got my fingers crossed.**

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After a few seconds the emergency lights came on, in the few seconds of darkness Sam had pushed the computer away from herself and seemed to be staring at it with contempt and shock. She stood suddenly and approached the guard.

"I need to see General Hammond, now."

"We need to stay here Ma'am."

"No Sergeant, this is an emergency," she ordered.

"I think General Hammond will have enough to deal with at the moment Ma'am. Besides, Dr Fraiser said that you weren't to leave the lab."

"I don't care what Janet said and trust me, General Hammond will want to hear this," Sam said, the panic slowly creeping into the edge of her voice.

"Okay," the SF agreed, still obviously unconvinced.

They walked quickly to the control room, Sam was almost running, forcing the SF to match her pace. They found Hammond in the control room as expected. He was trying to work out why, for the second time in the past week, one of the most secure computer systems in the world had been brought to a complete standstill. He looked hassled, as did Sergeant Davis, who was frantically trying to regain control of the computer system. Davis looked relieved as he saw Sam enter the room.

"Major, should you be here?" Hammond asked tactfully.

"I need to speak to you Sir," Sam replied simply.

Her tone and the timing of her arrival made it clear to Hammond that this had to be important.

"My office?"

"Thank you Sir."

"I need answers Sergeant," Hammond pressed as he turned to head to his office.

"Yes Sir," Davis replied, the exasperation and stress showing in his voice. Just how he managed to be on duty when these things happened was beyond him. With a deep sigh he went back to work.

Sam and her ever present guard followed Hammond out of the frantic control room and into the relative quiet of the briefing room and through to Hammond's office. He ordered the guard to wait outside, the Sergeant was unconvinced but was not about to go against the word of a two star General, he valued his job too much.

"Major, what can I do for you?" Hammond asked, as directly as possible but without being too blunt.

"The problem with the computers. It's crashed the dialling and main base systems and brought down the main power grid, right?"

"So I'm told but exactly how do you know that Major?"

"Because I did it," Sam stated simply.

"You did what?"

"I did it. I remember doing it but I couldn't stop myself. It was only when the system shut down that I realised what I'd done. I'm sorry Sir."

"The way it's been explained to me by Dr Fraiser, it wasn't exactly your fault, you had no control over your actions. What I want to know is if you can fix it, we can deal with why this happened later, once we have control of the gate back."

"Yes Sir, I know exactly what's wrong so I can fix it pretty easily."

"Well you'd better get to it. We can discuss this further when the computers are back up."

"Yes Sir."

Sam ran back to the control room, she was surprised at how well Hammond had taken the news. She had just admitted to sabotaging the base computer systems and he had not even admonished her, not yet at least.

To her credit, she had the system functioning within twenty minutes. Davis gave her a look bordering on awe as the system rebooted.

With some trepidation she went back to Hammond's office, she knew that she could face a court martial for what she had done and so had no idea what to expect from this meeting. She knocked on the door and entered when instructed, nervously she sat down across from Hammond.

"I take it the computers are back up?"

"Yes Sir. All base systems are functioning normally Sir."

"And you were the cause of this computer 'glitch'?"

"Yes Sir. I was working on a report in my lab and then I found myself bringing down the computer systems. I couldn't control my actions Sir. I believe that I may also be the cause of the previous incident."

"But you don't remember that?"

"No Sir but the way that the system went down on both occasions are too similar for it to be a coincidence, the only major difference being that the power grid was affected this time. And to be honest Sir, if I was going to consciously bring down the base computers, that's how I'd do it.

Hammond nodded as he tried to get his head around what he was being told.

"Sir, I understand the seriousness of my actions and am willing to accept any punishment you may deem necessary," Sam said formally, standing to attention.

"I think we're getting ahead of ourselves Major. You are under the influence of an alien technology of some kind according to Dr Fraiser. I will, however, ask that you remain in your quarters or the infirmary. And Major, please stay out of the computer systems until this is sorted out."

"Yes Sir, thank you."

Sam figured that she should head to the infirmary to inform Janet about this latest turn of events. She was more shaken by this than she would admit. If her paranoid delusions, which seemed to result in homicidal tendencies, were not enough to deal with, she now had to accept the fact that she had turned saboteur.

Janet looked slightly hassled when Sam arrived in the infirmary, it being populated with people who had suffered minor injuries when the power had gone out. Sam smiled slightly at Sergeant Siler, who was on a bed, with his foot elevated. Janet came over as she saw Sam hovering by the door.

"What happened to Siler?"

"He dropped a wrench on his foot and broke a toe," Janet answered, rolling her eyes. Siler seemed to visit the infirmary almost as often as SG-1. "Is everything okay?"

"This is my fault," Sam explained, indicating the people waiting for treatment.

"I don't understand," Janet replied, her eyebrows furrowed.

"I sabotaged the computers. I shut down the dialling computers, I caused the power grid to go down."

"Why?"

"I don't know, it was different to before. I wasn't paranoid, I wasn't doing it for any reason I know. I just couldn't stop myself. So more tests?" Sam asked, knowing her friend well.

"Not too many but you know the drill."

"Far too well," Sam agreed.

* * *

Janet was in her office, everyone had been released from the infirmary except Sam who was reading in a quiet corner. Janet looked up as one of the nurses entered with a large envelope in her hand.

"Here's the electron resonance scan you wanted."

"Thanks Connie," Janet replied. She eagerly took the envelope and extracted the contents. Putting the film on the viewer, Janet smiled slightly. She was not happy about the fact that it showed an implant deep within the brain tissue but happy that she could confirm why SG-1 was acting so strangely, that they could finally understood why they were acting angry, paranoid and selfish. Now that they knew what was wrong, they could try and fix it.

Just how to fix it was way out of her area of expertise, surgical removal was out of the question, without causing irreparable brain damage anyway. This was more Sam's area of expertise.

She just hoped that her friend could go for long enough without doing anything out of character to sort this problem out.

****

There was chapter 14, some positive progress here. Hopefully some more to come in forthcoming chapters but things are not wrapped up yet, not by a long shot.

* * *

**I'd love some feedback on this if it's going.**

**Take care and thanks for reading.**


	15. Chapter 15

**I know it's been ages since I last posted a chapter of this but life is pretty hectic at the moment, so as much as I hate to say it, writing is having to take a back seat at the moment. Hopefully everything will work itself out and I can back to writing posting more frequently than I am at the moment.**

**I have to say a massive thank you to everyone that has sent feedback my way, just passed the 100 mark for this story and for 'Against the Wall' not so long ago. Thank you so much, it means a lot to me, especially as 'Against the Wall' was on 99 for ages and I really hate odd numbers (don't ask!!)**

**I think I should probably say that SG-1 aren't mine but if anyone does want to send me them for my 21st on Monday I'd be more than happy to accept them. So enough of my waffling and on to the story…**

* * *

"Do you think you'll be able to shut them off Sam?" Janet asked.

"I don't know, I'm going to run some more tests, it's just…" Sam trailed off.

"What?"

"General Hammond ordered me to stay in the infirmary or my quarters. And after what happened, I'm surprised he didn't put me in a holding cell."

"I'll speak to him and see if we can work something out," Janet offered.

"Thanks. Can I have another look at that scan?"

"Sure," Janet replied. She picked the film of the magnified implant off the desk and put it up on the viewer.

Sam stood and crossed the office to get a better view, the image clearly showed the small cylindrical implant nestled deep within Daniel's brain tissue in this case. Looking at it, she shuddered slightly at the thought that there was one of these implants in her brain. That this tiny piece of technology, which was smaller than the head of a pin, could control her actions so completely, could make her act in such a disturbing manner was alarming.

"Sam?" came Janet's voice, breaking Sam from her thoughts. From the Doctor's tone it was clear that this was not the first time she had spoken.

"Sorry, just thinking," Sam replied quickly.

"Now there's a surprise," Janet replied, half-joking.

"Funny," came the dry reply.

"I'll go and see General Hammond, see of you can go back into your lab, under strict supervision. Everything I've got is in that file if you want to look. Seriously though, I know how eager you are to sort this out but don't push yourself too hard, you've been through a lot recently."

"I know, I promise," Sam replied, both not knowing if she would be able to stick to that promise or not.

"Good. I'll send someone in while I go see the General."

Sam was about to protest when she saw the computer on the desk. She knew that she could not be trusted near a computer or any of the critical base systems. She nodded reluctantly as Janet left the office.

* * *

Daniel was thoroughly bored; he was confined to his quarters. He had been using the time to work on the back log of translations that he had been asked to consult on, that was until his computer had been removed without a word of explanation. His protests had fallen on deaf ears and the laptop had been taken away too.

At that moment Daniel was contemplating his latest alien encounter and the subsequent technological addition to his brain. While this situation had some similarities with the Urgo fiasco, there were significant differences. Urgo had been annoying; this situation was far more sinister. At least Urgo seemed to serve a purpose; there was no reason for their current behaviour that he could see. He had no idea what could be gained by making him sporadically selfish, apathetic and amorous.

Having nothing else to do, he laid back on the bed. Exhaustion caught up with him and it did not take long for him to fall asleep.

* * *

_The door slid closed, separating him from Sam, they had managed to reassure each other that they were uninjured. Knowing that Sam was all right, at least for the time being, was reassuring. _

_Daniel had no choice but to go with Alamagor and Malatesar. He picked himself up before they could drag him to his feet, his cheek throbbing as he did. With a minimum of fuss he went with his two captors to what appeared to be a laboratory. He did his best to remember the turns that they had made between the cell and this lab just in case he managed to escape. Not that it seemed particularly possible right at that moment._

_He was firmly attached to the metal chair positioned in the centre of the room. He pulled against the bonds and found them to be quite secure, not that he honestly expected anything else._

_His eyes roamed around the room, various machines and pieces of technology lined the walls. Alamagor approached him with a large needle, the contents of which were quickly injected into his arm despite his protests and attempts to reason._

_His head swam as the drug began to take effect; his vision blurred further and nausea set in. Malatesar looked on and smiled smugly as Daniel did his best to fight the effects of the drug. Alamagor had his back to Daniel. When he turned to face him again he had a cylindrical object in his hand, it looked slightly like an oversized epi-pen from Earth. _

_He approached Daniel, the object raised as it neared his head. The drug decided to take full effect at that moment and Daniel lost his grip on consciousness altogether._

* * *

Daniel woke with a start, he scrubbed a hand through his hair as he attempted to sort through the dream. He stood and opened the door to his quarters, eliciting a sharp response from the posted guard.

"Could you contact Dr Fraiser? I need to speak to her," Daniel asked calmly.

"Yes Sir."

"Thanks," Daniel replied, going back into his quarters and shutting the door behind him.

* * *

Jack awoke with a start, his eyes scanned around the bare concrete walls, momentarily disorientated from sleep he did not recognise the room he found himself. As he realised that he was still in the bare holding cell he let out a small sigh. He sat up on the small, hard bed and dumped the thin blanket that had become tangled with his legs on the floor, he then raked a hand through his hair, fixing the damage that the pillow had done during sleep.

As he tried to tame his wayward hair he thought the dream that he had just had. For days he had been trying to remember what had happened back on the planet and now that he had, he realised that it had posed more questions than answers. He stood and crossed the small room in a few paces, he knocked heavily on the metal door. The SF on guard appeared in the small window after a few seconds.

"Sir?"

"Call Doc Fraiser would you?"

"Is there a problem Sir?"

"No, just call her," Jack replied. Although the statement was worded and delivered politely there was a definite air of authority contained within it.

"Yes Sir."

* * *

Sam had been working hard on the problem for a couple of hours, General Hammond had allowed her back into her lab but only under the strictest of supervision. He had ensured that the person watching Carter could understand what was going on and was also able to notice if the Major decided to hack into the base systems. They had all learnt a lesson from the previous incident, including one very embarrassed Airman who was inordinately glad to still have a job. Lieutenant Wilkinson, one of the computer technicians was watching Carter closely while trying not to distract her too much.

There was little chance of distraction right not as Major Carter had fallen asleep a few minutes previously. The Lieutenant chose not to disturb her as he had been told by Dr Fraiser to make sure that the Major got plenty of rest. Sam shuffled slightly as she fell deeper into sleep.

* * *

_Sam pulled against the bindings holding her against the metal chair. With definite trepidation she watch Alamagor approach her with a needle, the contents of which were emptied into her arm. She fought the effects of the drug as best as she could, fear gripped her as Alamagor approached again with a cylindrical object in his hand. As it was pressed against her scalp a burning pain erupted and spread across her head like fire._

_Sam bit down hard on her lip, both to stop from crying out and to try and curb the nausea. As the pain increased, a drop of blood dropped onto her tongue, the metallic taste doing nothing to stop the fierce nausea._

_"When can we start watching?" Malatesar asked._

_"Later," Alamagor yelled. His voice filled with anger as he realised that Sam was still conscious._

_That angry voice was the last thing she heard before she surrendered to the blissful nothingness of unconsciousness._

* * *

**If you don't happen to have a spare copy of the deeds to SG-1 sitting around to send for my birthday I would be just as pleased with some feedback on this chapter!!**

**Thanks for reading!!! :D**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey kids I'm back!! Been a while but I've been slightly cut off from the net for a while but finally I've got broadband installed at home. It doesn't help that I'm working full time and so don't exactly get as much time to write anymore!!**

**I hope to post again in a slightly more timely fashion…hope being the operative word there.**

**Thanks so much to my wonderful beta reader Naliza, you rule!!**

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed recently!! :D**

* * *

****

Jack, Sam, Daniel and Teal'c were sitting in the infirmary, waiting for Janet to arrive. It was slightly strange for all of SG-1 to be together, ever since Jack had been taken into custody they had been separated to some degree.

Jack, Sam and Daniel had all chosen seats as far apart from each other as they could be while still being in earshot. The atmosphere was strained, none of the group were really talking much and only some of the silence could be explained by the SF's standing guard in the doorway. The relief when Janet and General Hammond entered the room was apparent.

"Dr Fraiser tells me you've all had flashbacks of some sort."

"Yes Sir. We all seemed to have remembered the same event," Daniel supplied.

"Which is?"

"Them drugging us and then approaching us with an object. Sam remembers a bit more."

"Major?"

"Yes Sir, they pressed the object against my head, I think that's when the device was implanted. Before I lost consciousness I heard one of them saying something about 'watching' and the other shouting 'later', which is what I remembered before."

"Where on your head?" Janet asked, approaching Sam, who indicated a spot on the back of her head.

Janet looked at the spot that Janet had indicated, it was just above where the sutures in her scalp were, there was no obvious damage but considering the fact that the area was bruised, Janet was not surprised.

"And neither of you two remember this?"

"No, I passed out before they reached me," Daniel said.

"Me too," Jack agreed. "You think that's another Jolinar thing?"

"Possibly, you did say that it took more than one shot in the initial fight to knock you out. It could be that your body chemistry reacted differently to their technology."

"So what now?" Jack asked.

"I'm working on a way to shut the devices off but the technology is very advanced."

"What about that pulse thing that got rid of Urgo for a while."

"An electro-magnetic pulse might work but I would like to run some more tests before I do anything."

"I thought that thing wasn't harmful," Jack said, suddenly slightly worried.

"It isn't but I want to analyse the device and the signals being emitted to make sure there are no anti-tamper devices before I do anything."

"Good idea," Daniel agreed.

"Doctor, is there a chance that SG-1 will experience more of these flashbacks?" Hammond asked.

"It's hard to say. The events of these flashbacks seem to coincide with the memory gaps but it seems impossible to predict and there doesn't seem to be any associated triggers."

"So that's a maybe?" Jack commented dryly.

"Yes Sir, I would like to keep SG-1 in the infirmary for the time being."

"If you think that's for the best Doctor," Hammond conceded. He had hoped to keep SG-1 separate to minimise the chance of any incident but he deferred to Fraiser's expertise.

"Wonderful, swapping one grey room for another," Jack said, less than thrilled over his change in location.

"I'm sure we can find room in the holding cell, Colonel," Hammond replied.

"The infirmary's fine. Good even. A change is as good as a rest and all that," Jack said, back-peddling quickly.

"Good. Major, you should get back to work. Keep me apprised of the progress."

"Yes Sir."

Hammond turned and left the infirmary. Janet went back to her office leaving SG-1 alone again. The awkwardness descended again.

"What do you think they meant by watching?" Daniel asked after a few seconds silence.

"What?" Jack asked, drawing his gaze away from, his finger nails.

"Sam said one of them said something about 'watching'. What does that mean?"

"Maybe they had cameras in the cells."

"It's possible I suppose," Sam agreed.

"Another thing, I can't get away from the fact that we got away so easily. I keep thinking that they let us escape. They wanted us to get away," Daniel added.

"I think you're right. They were to smart to let is get away so easily."

But why would they do that?"

"I don't know. Nothing about this makes sense. This whole situation is just one big mess."

"You could say that Sir," Carter agreed. "I should get back to my lab. I'll let you know if I get anywhere."

"Thanks Sam," Daniel agreed, smiling weakly.

* * *

Sam sat in her lab, staring at the laptop open in front of her, bars and waves filled the screen. Sam had managed to analyse some of the signals that were being emitted by the device. What was confusing her the most however was not the signals that were being emitted but the fact that the device seemed to be recording information.

Sam continued to analyse the signals, after a few minutes she managed to hack into the signals being emitted.

The display on the screen changed, a small window opened which showed a view of the computer and the desk. It was exactly what she was looking at, right at that moment. She shifted her gaze upwards, still watching as the picture on the screen showed her changing view. They really were not kidding when said they were watching, they were seeing everything they were.

"Oh God," she muttered, her eyes widening further as one of the bars registered a change. It seemed that they were listening to them as well.

After a few more minutes Sam managed to work out what signals were entering the device. Two more screens popped up, one showing a cup of coffee and a book in what appeared to be Latin, the other a Gameboy.

Sam sighed deeply and packed up her laptop, with her escort in tow she headed back to the infirmary.

* * *

"What?" Jack exploded as Sam explained what she had found.

"They're watching us, listening to us. Everything that's happened since we came home."

"That's sick, why would they do that?"

"Well, they've been introduced to the wonderful game of hockey and the life changing piece of technology that is the Gameboy," Jack offered lightly but his levity did not match his true feelings.

"They've seen exactly how the computer systems work, know everything about us, about Earth," Sam explained seriously.

"You think that's why they've been watching us?"

"Maybe, but why would they be influencing our behaviour if that's all they want?"

"I still reckon they're doing it for kicks."

There was a moment for silence before Daniel spoke, his voice betraying some excitement.

"I think that's it Jack, they are doing it for fun. The attempts to sabotage the computers, our behaviour, all of this. They're seeing how we react to it all, what we do. It's like a forced sociological experiment."

"Like an extreme version of Big Brother," Jack observed.

"Is George Orwell relevant here?" Daniel asked.

"Get a TV Daniel," Jack sighed.

"I have one."

"Watch it once in a while. Big Brother, the reality TV show."

"You watch Big Brother, Sir?" Sam asked, smiling broadly and biting back a laugh.

"No," he replied but everyone saw through the lie. "Okay, once or twice."

"So, you think this is like 'Must see TV' for them?"

"It's as probable as anything else. You got any better ideas?" Sam asked.

"Yes, let's go back and really find out what's going on," Jack said finally.

* * *

**I've been sitting on this idea for a while, trying to find a way to bring it in to the story. I'd be really interested to hear what you think about it.**


	17. Chapter 17

**

* * *

I know I haven't posted anything for ages. I've been really busy at work and haven't had much time to write. I'm really going to try and write more, I promise. It's amazing how easy I found it to write when I should have been writing essays but now I have nothing to do in the evenings I seem to have so little time to keep up with my fic writing! But on the plus side, I do get time to think about possible plots when we're quiet!!**

**Thanks, as always to my wonderful beta Naliza for everything!!**

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****

"And you really think that General Hammond will allow that? He won't even let us walk around the base freely, let alone leave the planet," Daniel protested.

"Do you want this sorted out or not Daniel?" Jack asked abruptly.

"Of course I do but considering that we aren't necessarily in control of our actions and are being watched then we could unintentionally give out who knows what information to them."

"Daniel does have a point Sir," Sam added, she could not see that Hammond would allow them through the gate under the circumstances.

"We can try though can't we?"

"No," Hammond replied simply to their request.

"But Sir," Jack started.

"Colonel, you are too much of a security risk to this facility and this planet to allow you through the gate, who knows what could happen."

"But what of the security risk we pose by just being in the base, knowing what we know," Jack pleaded.

"I appreciate that Colonel but as things stand, I can't allow you through the gate."

"So we're going to be stuck on base forever? That sucks."

Hammond chose to ignore Jack's comment and turned instead to Carter, who had a file open in front of her and was looking closely at the papers it contained.

"Major, is there anything you can do?"

"As I said before, an electro-magnetic pulse might shut these things off. From what I can tell, there's no anti-tamper device in this thing but it might have an auto-reset like Urgo but I can't be sure. This is one of the most advance pieces of technology I've ever seen, I can't really be sure of anything."

"Best guess Major, is it safe to try an EMP?"

"Best guess, yes Sir," Sam replied after a moment of thought.

"Okay, it's the best suggestion we have. Major, go ahead. Just have Dr. Fraiser on standby just in case."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring General?" Jack questioned half-jokingly.

"Dismissed. Keep me informed."

"Yes Sir, thank you," Sam said as SG-1 stood and left the briefing room.

General Hammond stood for a moment, looking out through the windows of the briefing room after SG-1 had left. He wondered if he was following the right course of action. The feeling was not new to him; so many times he had been forced to make a decision which could affect so many lives. Sometimes they were right, sometimes they were wrong. He hoped that this time he had made the right choice.

* * *

Sam was setting up the electro-magnetic pulse generator in her lab, Daniel was watching her closely. Jack was idly fiddling with whatever he could find lying around, it was not uncommon for him to do this but today he was picking something up, playing with it for a few seconds before putting it down.

"Okay, we're ready to go," Sam said finally as she shut down most of the machines in her lab and shielded the rest behind the blast doors.

"Teal'c you ready?" Jack asked the Jaffa who was standing by the door, a zat gun in the holster at his hip.

"Indeed O'Neill," he replied.

It had been a last minute idea to have Teal'c in the room and a security contingent waiting outside. It was possible that Sam had missed an anti-tamper device or that whoever was watching would work out what they were trying to do and intervene. Janet and a medical team were waiting outside just in case as well.

"Okay, here goes nothing," Sam said, a slight tremor in her voice. She could not explain just why she felt so nervous about this but it was clear to her that her team mates were feeling just as nervous as she was.

"If our brains explode then we'll know it's not working, anything else is a plus so just get it over with Carter."

"Thank you Sir," she replied slightly exasperated.

She reached and flicked the switch, after a few seconds she looked round and smiled.

"It's done?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah," she replied, deeply relieved.

"Nice one Carter, my brain seems to be in one piece which I'm looking at as being a good thing."

"I'd say so," Daniel agreed. "You feel any different?"

"No but should I?" Jack questioned looking at Sam.

"I doubt it but I can check if the signals are still being emitted."

Sam booted up her computer and looked for any signals either being emitted or going into the device. After a minute she looked up from the screen and smiled.

"I can't find any signals. It looks like it worked."

"Really, great," Jack replied smiling. "Now we can go back to that planet and have a word with our friends."

"Don't get ahead of yourself Jack. General Hammond won't let us go until he's sure we're not under their control any more."

"I thought I was the pessimist of the group Daniel."

"You've been a bad influence on me," Daniel replied dryly.

"We should go update Janet and Hammond," Sam suggested. She was not in the mood for O'Neill and Daniel's banter.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed from the doorway. He swiped his card and opened the door, all those assembled looked up expectantly.

"The test appears to have been successful," Teal'c informed them evenly.

"Well done Sam," Janet said with a smile, a trace of relief evident on her face.

"Nothing's certain yet Janet."

"But nothing's going in or out of these things and that's good enough for me," Jack concluded positively.

* * *

"Good work Major," Hammond said as Sam filled him in about the successful test.

"Thank you Sir," Sam replied.

"Look Sir. Now that these things have been shut off can we go back to the planet and sort this out once and for all?"

"If nothing changes in the next 72 hours then we can reassess the situation but not before then, I'm sorry."

"But we could be there and back in 72 hours," Jack pleaded.

"I'm sorry Colonel, there's no debate."

"Fine," Jack reluctantly agreed.

"I will ask you to remain in the infirmary or your quarters for now though."

"Yes Sir," Sam agreed before Jack had the chance to protest.

"Dismissed."

* * *

Jack, Sam and Daniel had congregated in one of the VIP rooms. They were all bored, their access to the base computers was still limited and they were still not allowed to walk around the base without an escort.

"I'm going crazy being stuck in here," Jack sighed as the batteries on his Gameboy packed in and the small screen shut off.

"I don't really care. I'm getting some work done," Daniel replied. "Or I would be if some people would be quiet for a minute," he added bitterly as Jack put new batteries in and started the game again.

"What is that supposed to mean Daniel?" Jack asked without any trace of humour in his voice.

"It means that some of us are trying to work. Do things that they've wanted to do for weeks but as some people seem to want to play childish computer games and disturb everyone they can't get anything done."

"Say what you think Daniel," Jack replied, anger creeping into his voice.

"I think that I just did," he replied.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, the tremor returning to her voice.

"Keep quiet," Jack shouted at her.

"Don't shout at me, I haven't done anything. I know I haven't done anything," Sam replied, half-shouting.

Daniel slumped down in his chair and sighed deeply.

"I was talking to you, what do you think you're doing?" Jack shouted at him. Daniel simply shrugged and looked around the room.

Jack strode over to him and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him up and out of the chair.

* * *

****

**I do hope that it was at least slightly worth the wait!! I'd love to know what you all think of this chapter, submit a review and let me know!! :D**


	18. Chapter 18

**I know, I don't post anything for months and then two posts come along in two days. Blame it on the global conspiracy to stop my having a lie in, some genius decided to dig up the road outside my house at eight o'clock this morning! So, once again I've put my efforts into writing, I've pretty quickly managed to olish off a chapter of this. I got back into it a lot easier than I thought I would, especially as this is the first chapter I've posted of it for over a year (has it really been that long? Time really flies, huh?). Hopefully it won't be as long before the next chapter, if I went about it that way, I would finish this story by the time I'm ready to draw a pension!**

**Once again, this is totally unbetaed, please forgive me any mistakes.**

**Anyway, I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint!**

* * *

This action finally encouraged Daniel to act, he swung a fist around and caught Jack square in the jaw. It was not an action of aggression, more self defence as Jack began to attack him. Even after Daniel's punch had landed, Jack continued his attack. 

Sam went to try and pull the two men apart, instead of resolving the conflict she ended up becoming embroiled in the fight. Of the three of them, none of them actually knew who they were hitting and none of them knew why they were fighting anymore.

It was only when five SF's ran into the room that the fight ended, it took two men to keep Jack away from the others, while Sam and Daniel were each being restrained by an SF. The fifth man and the most senior of them surveyed the scene for a moment. Three of the most senior and respected members of the SGC were being restrained, with the second in charge of the base still struggling to attack his team mates.

After surveying the scene for a moment, he quickly realised that this was a situation which was totally out of his realm of understanding. He quickly called for a medical team and General Hammond, as well a back up.

Everyone was there quickly, Janet took one look at the situation and immediately ordered all three of them to be sedated, they all fought it, particularly Jack. Eventually though, they all succumbed to calming effects of the sedative.

"I want all three of them secured, separately," Janet ordered.

Three gurneys were brought and took them away to holding cells, each flanked by two SF's, their guns out and the safeties off.

"What are we going to do Doctor? The EMP didn't do anything," Hammond asked.

"I can't quite believe I'm suggesting this but what if they went back?"

"I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"I don't know what else to suggest, the only other options as far as I see it are to either lock them up on their own for the rest of their lives or to operate on their brains and try and remove the implant without killing them. I don't like either option."

"Maybe you are right. We need to get this matter resolved Doctor."

"I agree Sir. They shouldn't come round for a while and it's going to be hours before they're in any state to go off world in any case."

"That leaves us some time to come up with some other options in that case," Hammond said finally, it was clear that he was still unconvinced that sending SG-1 off world in their current state was a bad idea

* * *

In the end no one could come up with any other suggestion for what to do with SG1 and Dr Fraiser managed to convince Hammond that allowing them to go back was best and only solution to try and resolve the situation but he attached a list of provisos including SG1 going unarmed and with SG 2 and 3 for backup. 

Once Hammond had made his decision he went down to the holding rooms were SG1 were secured. He found Jack stretched out on the small bed, he was noticeably subdued once again, whether it was from the sedative or because of what had happened recently Hammond couldn't tell.

"What are you going to do with us Sir?" Jack asked, without looking up.

"I've decided that SG1 are going are going back to P2X-739."

Jack swung his legs off the bed and sat up quickly. He looked closely at Hammond and realised that he wasn't joking.

"Really, Sir?"

"Yes. You go unarmed and with SG 2 and 3, who will be armed. I'm sorry Colonel but Major Griff will be ranking officer on the mission, what he says, goes. And I know you have no control over your behaviour but you need to be aware that if it comes to it, I'm giving SG 2 and 3 permission to shoot to kill."

Jack nodded soberly, he knew that the General wasn't talking about Alamagor or Malatesar.

"They will have zats though, right?"

"Yes Colonel."

"That's mildly reassuring, only mildly. When do we ship out."

"In an hour. Get your team prepared, Colonel."

"Yes, Sir," he replied, with more buoyancy than he had shown previously.

Hammond relayed the same message to both Carter and Daniel, who took the news in much the same way that O'Neill had.

* * *

Within the hour SG-1 were geared up and ready to go, they stood waiting in the gate room, still flanked by their usual guards, waiting for their back up. SG 2 and 3, along with Teal'c entered the gate room, they were all armed, Teal'c with his staff weapon. 

Jack noted that they were all carrying zat guns as their side arms with a mixture of relief and unease that the situation had come to this. It felt strange to Jack to be going off world without being armed, he barely went anywhere without a gun close to hand, let alone to a potentially hostile planet.

He did, however accept the need to return to P2X-739 and he realised that it was the only way he was going to be allowed off-world. He was trying not to get his hopes up but he saw this has his only chance to get this sorted out, if they couldn't reach a resolution, if they couldn't sort this out then there was a chance he would never go off world again, there was a chance he would never leave the base again.

There was something that seemed to be drawing him back to the planet, it wasn't a compulsion he could not fight but there was something there, in the back of his mind, which just wouldn't go away. He knew going back was the right thing, which is why he had been fighting to be allowed off world for so long.

Sam was waiting at the bottom of the ramp, she was shuffling nervously. She had barely been so nervous about a trip through the gate since her first mission to Abydos. She knew she was being irrational, she had been on countless numbers of missions which were considerably more dangerous than this one but although she too felt a pull towards P2X-739 she felt some definite concerns about the mission.

Maybe it was something to do with the situation that this mission had come about or maybe it had something to do with the fact that her friends, the people she served with on SG 2 and 3 were under orders to kill them if necessary. That didn't sit well with her and she knew that it wasn't sitting well with Daniel or O'Neill.

The MALP was sent through the gate ahead of them, the area around the gate was clear and so Hammond ordered them to deploy. SG-2 went first, scanning the area before sending a message back that it was safe to proceed. SG-1 came through next, with Teal'c, followed by SG-3.

As SG-1 arrived they saw that SG-2 were scanning the tree line for any threat, they quickly moved towards the trees as there was no sign of anything threatening. They moved quickly across the terrain, lead by Major Griff. He was leading in the general direction of where SG-1 had been discovered on the original mission.

It didn't take them long to find the compound again, despite the indirect route they had taken both from and to the compound. Although they found the compound easily enough, getting in was another matter.

The exit that had been so easy to find from inside was alluding them from the outside, there seemed to be no markings on the walls, no doors, no windows. It was made up of countless panels, which were all identical, there were no distinguishing marks that they could see anywhere.

"Colonel? Do you know where the door is?"

"Can't say I do. Carter, Daniel, any suggestions?"

"No, Sir," Carter said, apologetically.

"It was around here somewhere," Daniel offered.

"Anything more specific than that Daniel?" Jack asked, with definite exasperation in his voice.

"I think I remember seeing that tree when we came out of the building," he said, pointing at the edge of the forest.

Jack looked at where he was pointing, the tree he was indicating looked, to him, just like every other tree on the planet and in the universe.

"That tree, you remember that particular tree?" Jack asked shortly.

"It does look different to others before you get snippy with me."

"Snippy, I'm getting snippy. At least I'm not being flaky."

"Flaky?"

"You just said that you recognised a TREE," Jack said, clearly losing his patience.

"Colonel, this isn't getting us anywhere" Griff shouted, putting himself between O'Neill and Daniel, who had slowly been getting closer to each other.

Jack turned his back on everyone else and walked a few paces away from the group. After a few seconds he turned back.

"We need to get this sorted out and quickly," Daniel observed, rubbing his head slightly.

"Daniel?" Griff asked with concern as an expression of pain appeared on his face.

"Just a bit of a headache is all," he replied offhandedly.

"Colonel, Major, you feeling okay? Any headache?"

"Not really," Jack replied quickly.

"Maybe a little," Sam replied. She turned to O'Neill and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Fine, I have a slight headache. Happy?"

"And this has just come on?" Griff asked.

"Yeah, while we've been standing here."

"Maybe we should go back to the SGC," Griff suggested.

"We're staying here. We need to sort this out."

"I'm sorry Sir but General Hammond made me ranking officer here. If you're all having headaches then you really should be looked at by Dr Fraiser. Let's head back to the gate," he ordered the group, before turning towards the forest and starting to head off.

"Come on Major, we need to be here," Daniel pleaded.

Griff turned back as though to make another order when the argument was quickly settled.

A door had opened in the wall of the compound while they had been discussing whether to stay. Standing there was Alamagor, Malatesar and fifteen armed men.

* * *

**So what do you think of my return to this story? Review and let me know!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Never finishing this story has always been one of my regrets. There are no excuses but I am sorry. If anyone is still reading, here is, finally, an ending. This and the next and final chapters are totally unbetaed. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.**

Daniel was the first one to see them standing in the doorway, he quickly tapped Jack on the arm.

"What now, Daniel?" Jack said impatiently.

"Um," was all that he said, he pointed over to the compound. Jack sighed and followed his gaze.

"Hey fellas, we've been looking for you. Could you do us a favour, we've got these chip things in our heads, making us all go a bit wacky. If you could whip them out, we'd be really grateful."

By the time that Jack had finished his request, SG-2 and 3 had turned around and raised their weapons against the aliens, resulting in a stalemate situation.

"Put down your weapons. You will come with us," Alamagor shouted across the space dividing the two groups.

"Will we?" Griff shouted back.

"It's what we came here for," Jack muttered to the Major.

"How about a deal?" Jack called out. "These guys stay here, with their weapons. And the three of us come with you, how's that?"

"Is that a good idea, Colonel?"

"Probably not but do we have a choice. Do you have any better suggestions, Major? No, well, that's the plan then. Daniel, Carter, you okay with this?" Jack said under his breath to the other two.

"Yes Sir," Carter agreed for the both of them.

Jack, Daniel and Sam all followed Alamagor and Malatesar into the compound, leaving SG-2 and 3 standing outside the compound.

Sam started an attempt at conversation with Alamagor but it quickly became obvious that he wasn't in the mood to talk. He lead them through the compound, Malatesar was bringing up the rear with two of the armed men from outside, the others having left the group as soon as the exit had been sealed.

"I told you that the exit was close by," Daniel said in a low voice to Jack.

"Well, I promise I will never underestimate your botany skills again," Jack replied shortly. "And if you could try remembering a route out of here, that would be helpful," he added.

"Sorry," Daniel replied offhandedly.

After a few twists and turns, the group entered a room, it was simply decorated with a metal table and chairs. They all sat around the table, Jack only taking a seat when threatened by Malatesar.

"You know?" Alamagor asked.

"We know what you did. We don't know why," Sam clarified.

"We did it to understand."

"To understand what? How our security systems work? How best to attack our planet?"

"That was not our intention, we do not wish to attack your planet. It has nothing to offer us, you are nowhere near as technologically advanced as we are," Alamagor said with a superior tone which reminded Jack of the Tolan.

"What were you trying to understand then?"

"We wanted to understand how you react to certain situations, how you behave as a society, especially as you go through difficult situations as you recently have."

"And what did you learn?" Jack asked bitterly.

"That you are well versed in crisis situations, that you are willing to sacrifice much. You are, however, over reliant on emotion. You are ruled by your emotions to the point where much of your behaviour is dictated by them. Especially you," he said, indicating Sam.

"You know what? I think we could have told you that, without you putting us through all those mind games. Do you understand what you did to us? What we did to each other when we were under the influence of your little chips," Jack asked, dangerously calm.

"We were watching what occurred. I must say that the effects were different to what we have seen previously. I believe that you became aware of what you were doing?"

"Yes," Sam replied with bitterness in her voice.

"You did perform very well however. There were many entertaining incidents involving you and you do seem to have a greater grasp of technology compared to the others. We were, in many ways impressed by you."

"Entertaining, you thought that what happened was entertaining? I thought that it was degrading and a personal violation," Sam spat back.

"As we have said, it was not our intention for you to discover this, at least not in the way that you did. We can only apologise for this aspect of the experiment."

"Well apology not accepted," Jack replied.

"Whatever your motives were, can you please get these things out of our heads?" Daniel pleaded.

"I do not know if we can comply with this demand," Alamagor replied.

"You don't know? For crying out loud, how can you not know."

"Because we have never had cause to remove the devices. We may be able to deactivate them."  
"You may?" Carter asked, her eyebrows creeping up slightly.

"Whatever, I'm not sure that'll be good enough. We tried to shut them down ourselves, it didn't exactly work."

"Yes, that was interesting. An ingenious yet relatively primitive attempt to shut down the devices. We were aware of your plans and temporarily shut the devices down."

"What we are saying is we want these things out, permanently. Or you will find just how 'primitive' our weapons are."

"You are no match for us."

"Not on our own but there are many, many more of us. With bigger weapons, much bigger," Jack stressed.

"This may be true but, as we said, we do not know if it is possible to remove the devices."

"Well, can't you at least try?" Jack asked.

"We can try but we will not be able to guarantee your safety should we do so."

"I don't care," Jack replied simply.

"Colonel," Carter objected quietly.

"I don't Carter. I can't go through life like this, wondering who I'm going to attack next, if next time I'm going to kill someone. I won't spend the rest of my life in solitary confinement or drugged up to the eyes."  
"I understand that Colonel but they could shut the devices off."

"And risk them turning back on again if they get bored. Wondering if I'm going to lose it again. Remove it."

"As you are aware of the presence of the devices, you serve little educational value. We will therefore attempt to remove the devices, if that is what you wish. It may be useful for us to understand how to remove the devices without harming the subject."

"How generous of you," Daniel commented with a definite bite of sarcasm in his voice.

"I can only speak for myself but it's what I want," Jack said  
"I want it out of me as well," Carter agreed, she had been sufficiently swayed by what O'Neill had said. She wanted her life back, which she realised she would never have with the device left in her brain.

"Yeah, me too," Daniel agreed.

"Who will be first?"

"I will," all three of them said at almost the same time.

"I will," O'Neill said again, with an air of finality.

"Are you sure, Sir?"

"Yes Carter, my brain isn't quite as valuable as yours or Daniel's. It should be me."

"We will prepare. You will stay here," Alamagor said, standing.

Without another word SG-1 was left alone in the room. As a matter of curiosity rather than anything else, Sam tried the door and was not surprised to find it locked. She turned and shrugged to the other two.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Jack?" Daniel asked again.

"Yes Daniel. I'm sure, what else are we supposed to do. I don't trust them as far as I could throw them but as far as I'm concerned it's better than the alternatives. My mind's made up."

"I do agree with you, Jack. I'm just concerned, they fitted the damn things and now they don't know if they can remove them."

"Don't remind me," Jack said with a sigh.

The three lapsed into silence, not knowing what else to say. It wasn't long before Alamagor and Malatesar returned.

"We are prepared," Alamagor said with an air of confidence which made Jack feel slightly uneasy.

"Can we watch the procedure?" Carter asked. O'Neill turned and gave her a look, she gave a slight shrug in return.

"That is acceptable. Come with us," Alamagor said as he turned and left the room. SG-1 filed out of the room, with Malatesar following them out.

"You want to watch?" Jack asked Sam in a whisper as they walked through the halls.

"Not really, I just thought that if we're all there then they won't try anything," she replied in an equally hushed voice.

"That's reassuring," came the sarcasm laced reply. Despite the tone of his voice, Jack appreciated the thought and felt slightly comforted by the fact that his team would be there.

They were taken to what was obviously a medical room, it looked very much like a hi-tech version of the SGC infirmary.

Jack was directed to a bed where monitoring equipment was attached to his head and chest.

"Try to relax, Colonel O'Neill, this should not be painful," Alamagor said but there was something in his tone which implied that he did not care whether it hurt or not.

"Yeah sure you bethca," Jack replied, he didn't think that it would be easy for him to relax knowing that he was about let a hostile(ish) alien mess about with his brain.

Jack felt the local version of anaesthetic working on his system, he felt himself drift away. Before he lost consciousness, he looked at his team mates who were looking on with concern, they both smiled slightly at him, trying their best to look reassuring but neither of them managed it that successfully.

As soon as Jack was completely unconscious, Alamagor went to work, despite the air of confidence he projected, he was definitely uncertain about completing this surgery. It was only five minutes before Sam and Daniel started sharing concerned looks.

They were watching the monitors that Jack was hooked up to and the lines being displayed were becoming more and more erratic, which could not be a good thing. Suddenly the monitor started flashing orange and emitting a series of high pitched beeps.

"Orange can't be good," Daniel said, looking over to Sam with concern etched across his face.

"No, I think orange is very bad," Sam replied.

"Do something," Daniel shouted at Alamagor.

"Please," Sam added.

They looked at each other and then back at the monitors, which were now bordered in yellow and emitting a constant tone.

"Yellow is worse?" Daniel asked, already knowing the answer.

"Flatline," came the simply reply from Sam


	20. Chapter 20

Thankfully, within seconds, Alamagor managed to restart Jack's heart, the colour on the monitors changed from yellow, back to orange, finally settling again on black. Both Sam and Daniel audibly exhaled as they realised he was out of immediate danger.

It seemed to take forever, neither Daniel or Sam could follow what was being done or relate it to Earth medical procedures but eventually Alamagor announced that he was finished.

"Did you remove the device?"

"I did."

"Will he be okay?"

"He should regain consciousness shortly."

"What happened back there?"

"It was a reaction to the procedure, there should be no long term effects of what happened."

"Should?" Daniel asked, his eyebrows creeping towards his hairline.

"I cannot be certain though his heart was not stopped for more than a few seconds. I am confident that this will not happen again. Who wishes to be treated next?"

"Can't we wait until Colonel O'Neill regains consciousness?"

"You show such strong feelings for the people you serve with," Alamagor said as though it was an alien concept to him.

"Yes we do. It is part of what makes us good at what we do," Daniel tried to explain.

"I do not understand this concept myself," he said with a definite air of superiority.

"Whatever works for you. Can we wait until the Colonel wakes up?" Sam asked again, slightly impatiently.

"I suppose," came the off-handed reply.

It was not long until they noticed O'Neill start to show signs of waking up, both Daniel and Sam crossed over to him.

"Jack, can you hear me?" Daniel asked.

"I feel like I've had a good night," came a slightly slurred reply.

"No such luck, Sir," Carter replied with a slight smile. It sounded as if the Colonel was intact.

"I figured as much," O'Neill commented as he opened his eyes and immediately regretted it as the harsh light of the room infiltrated his eyes. He resorted to a squint as a compromise between being able to see and controlling the jackhammer in his brain.

"How do you feel, Sir?" Sam asked.

"Peachy."

Oh yeah, the Colonel was still there.

"I'll go next," Sam announced, turning to face Alamagor.

"Let us commence with the procedure."

Thankfully both Sam and Daniel's procedures went without a hitch, they did both, however, wake with what felt like a hangover from hell, much as Jack had. It took them all a while to be able to stand and face the bright lights.

"Look, as much as I'd love to say this has been fun. It hasn't. So we're going to be off now," Jack said with his usual brand of sarcasm.

"Thank you for removing the devices," Daniel said, trying to be polite as he could.

"We have to thank you. You have been both educational and, um, entertaining in your own ways."

"Well it's good to be of service," Jack replied with an exasperated sigh. "Can we go now?"

"You may depart."

Jack, Sam and Daniel left the compound, they weren't surprised to see Malatesar outside the medical room, waiting to escort them out, as the exit door opened, he turned and left SG-1. As soon as the door opened, SG-1 exited and were greeted by SG-2 and SG-3, all with their weapons raised.

"Stand down," Jack said, his voice betraying the tiredness he felt.

"Is everything okay, Colonel? We were starting to get a little concerned?"

"Everything's fine, better than fine actually. We are all de-chipped."

"You sure?"

"I bloody well hope so, otherwise I flatlined for nothing," Jack replied. Daniel had filled him in on the eventful round of surgery whilst Sam was being treated.

"Let's get you all back to the SGC," Griff said, the news that O'Neill had almost died made him more eager than before to get them back to the base and into Dr Fraiser's expert hands.

"Couldn't agree more."

The trip back to the Stargate was thankfully uneventful, everyone was glad to see the gate in the distance and more than glad to step through it back onto Earth.

General Hammond was in the gate room to meet the party as they returned.

"How did it go?" he asked to the assembled group.

"You are probably very pleased to hear that we are all free of alien influence. They agreed to remove the chips."

"They did?"

"Yes Sir. Apparently that as we were aware of the devices, we were no longer educational or entertaining to them so they saw no reason not to remove them," Carter explained.

"Good job, everyone. We'll debrief properly once you have all been cleared by Dr Fraiser."

"Thank you, Sir," came the response from a number of the assembled personnel before they all left the gate room and headed up to the infirmary. Janet was on SG-1 almost before they were through the infirmary.

"We're fine, Doc."

"Jack nearly wasn't though," Daniel said, knowing the Colonel wouldn't admit it unless he really had to.

"What happened, Colonel?" Janet asked in her best physician mode.

"I don't remember but apparently there was a little iffy moment when they were removing the chip.

"He flatlined," Daniel clarified.

"Colonel, pick a bed. I want you on a cardiac monitor for a while. Sam, Daniel, I want to monitor you pretty closely. The rest of you, someone will be over to do your post mission physicals as soon as possible."

Jack went quietly and took up a place on one of the beds, his usual for infirmary stays. Every member of SG-1 had a favourite spot and Jack, Daniel and Sam all took their beds and waited for Janet.

She immediately went to Colonel O'Neill, she could guess that he would be the one to volunteer to be the first to have the procedure done without having to ask him. The news that his heart had stopped was slightly concerning to her, though he didn't seem to be showing any side effects of it.

She hooked him up to the cardiac monitor and was pleased to find that all his vital signs were more or less normal, all the differences could easily be put down to the stressful events of the past few days.

She wanted to keep a close eye on him but was confident there was no lasting damage from the cardiac arrest. After a quick examination, she sent Daniel and Carter down for a CAT scan, hoping that it would confirm that the chips had been removed and that they would finally have SG-1 back.

SG-1 were sitting round the briefing room table, waiting for General Hammond so they could start the debriefing. As soon as Hammond entered the room, O'Neill and Carter both stood before Hammond waived them back to their seats.

"I have spoken to Dr Fraiser, who is confident that the devices that had been implanted into yourselves on P2X-739 have been removed. The CAT scans show no signs of the devices remaining. As there have been no more 'incidents' since your return, I am happy to remove the restriction keeping you on base."

There were smiles all around at this announcement.

"Thank you, Sir," Carter said, a broad smile lighting up her face.

"You are all on leave for two weeks, as long as there are no more problems during this time, then you will be back on the mission rota. And when I say leave, I expect you all to leave," Hammond said, looking in particular at Sam and Daniel. "I don't want to see any of you on base unless there is a medical reason why you need to be here."

"Yes, Sir," came the enthusiastic response from Jack, followed by slightly less enthusiastic responses from Sam and Daniel, Teal'c just nodded.

"Dismissed," Hammond said, standing from the table and heading back to his office. He knew that he had just spoilt Dr Jackson's and Major Carter's plans but they needed some leave and he knew he would have to make it an order to ensure the actually took it.

"So, what are everyone's plans?" Jack asked, with a devious tone in his voice.

"I've got a translation that I really wanted to finish."

"I want to work on my bike for a bit."

"I had planned to rent Star Wars from the video rental establishment."

"No, Teal'c was closest. The correct answer is, we are going to rent some video's, buy some food and have a barbecue at my place. That's an order."

"Sounds like a good idea, Sir," Carter agreed, surprising Jack with the ease at which she agreed.

"Why not," Daniel agreed, with two weeks there was plenty of time for him to do the translation and there was no way that Jack could keep him hostage for that long.

"I too will attend, though I would like to rent Star Wars," Teal'c reiterated.

"We can rent Star Wars, T," O'Neill agreed, albeit slightly reluctantly.

Hammond watched the four members of SG-1 make plans together for their break before leaving the briefing together, chatting comfortably. It never ceased to amaze the General that despite what the team had been through or maybe because of what they had been through since their inception they were closer than ever. Even the actions of a group of aliens who had wanted little more than some information and entertainment at the expense of the team could not drive them apart.

He wondered, how, even after so many years of military service and his time in this command that things still surprised him. Though, some things he could count on and one of them was the people under his command, they always seemed to win through in the end.

**The End (Finally).**


End file.
